MURDER CHARGE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 143, 14 March 1938, Page 10

MURDER CHARGE

Auckland Farmer Found fchot POLICE ARREST SON Victim Believed To Have Been Dead A Month By Telegraph—Press Assoemiion. Auckland. March 13. The decomposed body of an elderly man, Robert Fitzroy Spensley. warmer, of Gum Block Road, Suanson, with a bullet wound in the centre of the forehead, was discovered this afternoon hidden beneath a small pile of hay 20 yards from the house. .Detectives from Auckland began investigations within a short time after the body was toinid. At 8 o’clock to-night Francis Robert Spensley, aged 18, a son of the murdered man, was charged with murder, and will formally appear before a magistrate to-morrow. It is said that in rue tour sears the murdered man spent in the locality lie became fairly well known. if a trifle uncommunicative, ami at various times of the day could be seen doing odd jobs about bis small farm. For short periods of the year the victim, who had been a gold prospector, visited the Te Aroha district to work a claim he possessed so as. to avoid forfeiture. Generally these visits were short. This year, however, he did not return, so far as it could be discovered, and lie bid not been seen after February 1. Because of bis habit of go.ng vat’ll year to Te Aroha, bis absence for a fortnight did not inspire comment, but as the period became prutiacted the suspicions of the local people were aroused- This afternoon a nc.ghb-..r, Mr. S. Hammond, resolved to find out, lie said, if Spc.isley were i! . s

about 60 years of age. and with his son lived alone in a d house, Mrs. .Spensley hav.ng p.edeceased her liu-banil some years before.

Mr. Hammond had occasion to climb over a fence separating the home paddock from the house section when, to his horror, lie saw wl.at a; b . ■ to be the body of a de: d man lying beneath a shallow mound of h y and screened from the road ab i; ds

distant by a live-L’eet-high b. I. oi p uus iusignis.

Without delay and informing m> one. of his intention, he hurt .eu .<> t e nearest telephone'and rang the pol.ee. who were on the scene in a remarkably short time, followed by Dr Walter Gilmour, pathologist. As soon as Dr. G Imotir made ati examination, he said that in ins oji.uion the man had been dead a monui. The detectives were ot the opinion that he bad been shot w. it a .22 calibre rifle. A search was made in the neighbourhood, and two men returned witli two guns. Exhaustive inquiries were math at all the farm-houses in an einleavot;;’ • > find the murdered man's s».i. out a. ■> o'clock the youth walked into 1.. e house, finding the police in charge. . u was taken into the kitchen and questioned. The body was clothed only in a shirt and woollen underpants.