OPOTIKI MURDER

Hokitika Guardian, 13 May 1929, Page 3

OPOTIKI MURDER

STATEMENT BY POLICE. [By Telegraph, Per Press Association.] GISBORNE, May 11. Inspector O’Halloran, who is at Opotiki skated this morning that wliilp the affair at Papamoa is shrouded in mystery, there could be no suggestion that McAlesse had commuted suicide, but it was perfectly clear lie had been de.iberately shot at close range. .He and the members of his. staff were making every possible inquiry, particularly with a view to ascertaining if any persons other than these already accounted for, had been anywhere in the locality at the time. So far the police have only been able to leant of one motor car passing along the road during ( the hour McAlesse was separated from his mates and no report has been received of other persons in the vicinity. Death was caused by a shot from a pea rifle which passed clean through the heart and came out near the back of the shoulder. The dead man was severely battered about the face, a out, on the upper lip extending right to the base of the nose. The pea rifle which belonged to McAlesse had been broken aiul placed in a sad: which was found lying in a water tah.o on the opposite side of the road, 1611. from the body. Only one shot had been fired, an examination not supporting the previous suggestion that a second bullet was responsible for the wound on the face.