PUKEKAWA MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2190, 16 October 1920, Page 2

PUKEKAWA MURDER.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE, Auckland, Get. 15. The preliminary trial of Bamuel John Thorne charged with (lie murder of Sidney Seymour Eyre, at Pukekawa, on August 24th, began at; Pukckohe to-day before Mr Poynton. Mr R. P. limit, for the prosecution, addressing the Court, said that the ease was a strong circumstantial one, would be shown, and that the fatal shot-was fired by one who had an intimate knowledge of the house, and Thorne was the only one outside the family having that knowledge. At the lime of the murder Thorne was working at Granville's farm, .18 miles from Eyre’s. Thorne’s horse had peculiarly shaped shoes, and tracks discovered showed that it. had been ridden between the two properties on (he night of August 24th. Eyre's house contained two guns, neither of which had been tired recently. A gun in Thorne's whare had been discharged, and if took a cartridge of the same calibre as that used to kill Eyre. Thorne was the only possessor of cartridges of dial particular brand within a radius of 21 miles. The night of the murder was » one of two nights when Thorne had I* been left alone in his whare. Evidence would show that while Eyre was away, and after his return, Thorne had forced immoral relations on -Mi's Eyre. Thorne had threatened Eyre’s life before. Witnesses had said to Mi's Eyre “Don’t: you wish he was dead 1 ?” Eyre's sons had heard Thorne sneaking into iheir mother's room at night. The motive suggested was revenge for being discharged from a good position, and being deprived of the opportunity of continuing relations which were forced on Mrs Eyre. Millieenl Eyre, widow of the deceased. stated that the properly of {>oo acres owned by tier late husband, was worth between £15,000 and £20,000. On the night of August 241 h there was nobody at the house except members of the family and eveyone was in bed about !) p.m. Her husband and Philip were the last to go to bed and she saw that the front door was closed. She was awakened after being asleep for some time by the accused’s dog harking under the hoys' room. The dog, Boh, had been taken away by Thorne when he left the farm, bill had come hack by itself. The dug was harking furiously and she called to it to lie down, which il did alter a time. She went off to sleep to he awakened again by the shot of a gun. She heard quick, heavy steps by the side of I he house, apparently going towards the hack gale. She called to her husband, and, gelling no answer, she struck a. light and discovered that the top of his head been blown away, Between live and ten minutes afterwards the boys had left the house for help, and she hoard a horse cross the bridge below the house, apparently going away from the house. -Mrs Eyre also said accused last visited the farm on August 241 h. He had often told her that he loved her and had asked her to go and live with him. She admitted that relations had been improper between accused and herself; (hey continued after her husband Jmd returned. She could not prevent him been use lie said he would "put me away to my husband, expose me, drag my name in the gutter and get me divorced." She saw accused at the Tuakau police station after the murder. He asked her then what made her think he killed her husband. She replied: “Circumstances.” He asked “What circumstances?'’ and she answered: “You knew the position of the ‘ja bed and everything about theY* house.” He replied: “True us I am here, 1 never did il." Dr. Wake gave evidence that Eyre was apparently murdered while asleep by the firing of a gun close to his head from the outside of the window.

Dr. C. (Smith pave evidence that lie found about 40 pellets of shot at the base oi' the skull, ;ind eoneluded from tests made that ihe shot would have been lired easier by a left handed lhan by a right handed man. lie considered that it was impossible for. the. shot to have been lired from the inside of the house.