Koiterangi Youth Killed In Fall Over 600 ft Cliff

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 April 1948, Page 4

Koiterangi Youth Killed In Fall Over 600 ft Cliff

A deer culler, David Zdfred Lyes, single, aged 22, son of Mr and M'rs John Lyes, of Koiterangi, was killed when he fell EOO to 600 feet over a cliff in the Mount Cook region on Thursday. With his brother Percy, David Lyes was a member of a party of six deer cullers who have been employed by the Internal Affairs Department in the Hermitage area for six or seven months with headquarters at Birch Hill hut, about seven miles from the Hermitage.

The accident happened in the Ben Ohau Valley, five miles on the Lake Pukaki side of the Hermitage. It was reported from Mount Cook last evening that it appeared that Mr Lyes, who was on his own at the time, was late returning to Birch Hill and had apparently lost his way. He fell down a short snow slope, over two or three bluffs, and then down a longer slope into the valley basin. When Mr Lyes did not report to camp, the deer cullers made a search during. Thursday night. They were joined later by a party of four, including three guides from the Hermitage. The body was found about o a.m. yesterday and was taken to the Hermitage late in the afternoon, the journey taking nearly five hours. ' A Press Association message from Timaru states that an inquest into the death of David Alfred Lyes was opened at Timaru today before the Coroner, Mr C. W. Wood, when evidence of identification was given. The inquest was adjourned sine die.