PIHA MYSTERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 March 1939, Page 5

PIHA MYSTERY

IDENTIFICATION DIFFICULTIES. [per press association.] AUCKLAND. March 8. From the tangled skein of facts and theories surrounding the I’iha lire- on February 12, when a bach was burnt to the ground, there emerges the information that both the upper and lower jaws were missing from the piece of skull that was found buried

among the ashes, Tills fact is considered; fu make it more difficult to identity the remains as those of Gordon Robert McKay, the Australian. who is believed to have perished in the fire.

No teeth were found, yet the den tist. who extracted nine teeth from McKay’s lower jaw, on the morning before the fire, said to-day that there were fused porcelain teeth in the missing man’s upper artificial denture, and that these would have withstood th© intense heat of a crematorium.

It has been reported in some quarters that, if McKay’s lower jaw had been recovered from the heap of ashes, charred wood, and debris, when the police made their exhaustive search of the ruins. Dr. W. Gilmour, pathologist, and the dentist should have been able, to identifv it.

The difficulty' is that both jaws are missing. All that the police found was a. section of bony structure that might, ha.vo been either a section of the back or the front of a skull. In the cavity there was some material which has not. yet. positively been identified.

It has also been reported that, while the police were searching the ruins of the bach, they unearthed a gold signet ring. This is believed to be the property of Gordon Robert McKay. However, inquiries to-day suggested that, while the ring wa? found, its intrinsic and evidential value were practically' -worthless. The ring was found among ashes. Some faint, scratches on its surface may, or may' not, have been someone’s initials.

No hint as to the findings of Dr. Gilmour and Mr. Kenneth MacCOimick, who are associated in the examination of the remains, has yet been given to the Auckland police.