IDA VALLEY PEOPLE ARE NERVOUS WHILE MURDER IS UNSOLVED

Grey River Argus, 5 October 1949, Page 3

IDA VALLEY PEOPLE ARE NERVOUS WHILE MURDER IS UNSOLVED

P.A. DUNEDIN, October 4. No arrest has yet been made in the Moa Creek murder case. It is now a week since William Fraser Mclntosh was murdered in his own woolshed, little more than 50 yards from his home. Since then more than 20 members of the police force have been making widespread inquii'ies. but so far without a definite result. In the past two days a search for the weapon used in the brutal attack on Mclntosh has been intensified.

Police have been draining several ponds that dot the valley in which the Mclntosh farm is situated. Their search has covered a circle of eight miles radius from the farm. An office has been established by the police at Moa Creek, and typewriters have been in almost continuous use typing out scores of statements taken in the district. The office is well equipped for the work, but the telephone service has not always been capable of handling a tremendous increase in the traffic in the past week. While it would appear that the police are concentrating their efforts in the Moa Creek district, they have travelled considerable distances in almost every direction, following various lines of inquiry. A search for a man who, it was stated, called at the Mclntosh farm on the afternoon of the murder, has been steadily pursued. It was reported to the police last week that this man was seen by Mrs Mclntosh coming from the direction of the woolsbed, and that when she spoke lo him he inquired if the farm was that of a neighbouring farmer. Meanwhile in Ida Valley, many of the residents are displaying nervousness when darkness descends on scattered farms. Womenfolk refuse to be left alone at night, and doors and windows are carefully locked. It is reported that callers at some farms after dark have been met by the farmer himself armed with a rifle or a shotgun. Many feel that the concentration of police in the district could be taken to indicate that the murderer may be near the scene of his crime, and that he could strike again.