UNSOLVED MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 4670, 11 July 1936, Page 4

UNSOLVED MURDER.

THE OROMAHOE CRIME

SCENE NEAR WAIHOU VALLEY

The prolonged invcstig'ation by tho police concerning the murder of Mr Ernest S. Nelson on his farm at Waihou Valley, North Auckland, on June 10, recalls a double murder mystery in the same district which has never been solved.

On August 14, 1919, two elderly Maoris, a man and a woman, were shot at the door of their tent or whare at Oromahoe, < near Paparaka. A half-caste was arrested and sent by the Magistrate’s Court for trial in the Supreme Court, where the grand jury, on the advice of the Judge, returned no bills, the accused being discharged. Since then nothing further has been heard of the crime.

The victims were Ihimaera Takimoana, a man aged about 60, and his step-sister, Mereana Takimoana, aged about 70, who lived together on a lonely hillside, 400 yards from the nearest house in the native settlement.

About seven o’clock on a dark, wet evening, when the old couple were drinking tea prior to retiring for the night, heavy steps were heard approaching their simple habitation. A voice called out “Kia .Ora.” Ihimaera replied with the same greeting and, going to the entrance, invited the stranger to have a cup of tea. The figure in the dark immediately fired a shot at him, the bullet, of small calibre, striking him in the left arm. The wounded man stepped back inside to get something with which to defend himself. The woman went to the entrance and she was shot dead,: Ihimaera returning received two more bullets and then, evidently, the murderer decamped. ~ ' Ihimaera made his way to the nearest house, where he received attentipn and was sent .to the Kawalkawa Hospital. Prior to his removal to the hospital he said that he had been unable to recognise his assailant, but hinted that if he were better he might be able to think of someone who would, answer to his impression of voice and figure.

An operation had to be performed on August 18; Before it was carried out the police interrogated Ihimaera, but he declined to make a 'statement. The following day death became imminent and he was again seen by the police. The arrest was made that evenpng. Evidence was given in the lower Court that the male deceased had been regarded by many of the Maori people as a tohunga and some believed that deaths which had occurred during the influenza epidemic of 1918 had been due to a makutu influence he possessed. The empty shells of seven .22 bullets were found closely grouped on the ground about 24 feet from the entrance to the tent-whare and expert evidence suggested that the Aveapon used Avas a seven-chamber revolver. According to a Avitness a firearm of the kind had been in the district.

The folloAving extracts from a statement put in by Senior-Sei-geant Cassells at the loAver Court hearing are interesting in vieAV of the subsequent history of the caser

Speaking on the evening of August 18, Ihimaera said: “I feel very ill.” In reply to the; question: “Do you feel you are about to die?” he answered': “No, I Avill not die. I feel sad.”

To the question: “Who Avas it shot you?” the' man replied, “I c-an’t tell you until Hori Tuki comes.”

Later he said: “After shooting me the man Avent up the hill. He Avas a half-caste and he shot me Avith a pistol. He Avas a young man.”

Again, “I -vVill tell Hori in the morning the name of the man who shot me.”

Asked “Will you tell Constable Dempsey now as you promised?” Ihimaera said : “Yesj I will, but if when Hori comes it is wrong he must let me change it.” “What is the name of the man?” asked the sergeant. “I think it was —.” The surname given was that of the accused, but not the Christian name, though it began with the same letter. To this fact Mr ■Singer, for the accused, drew attention.

Further questioning about a man Ihimaera had seen at a bridge when on his way to hospital convinced the police that the accused was the man indicated in spite of the difference in the Christian name. The accused, it was stated, admitted that he had been at the bridge on the day in question. The case was oh the list for the 'November! (1919) sessions of the Supreme Court at Auckland. Addressing the grand jury, Mr Justice Stringer said he would take: the responsibility of advising it fo throw out the bill against the accused. The only thing that implicated the accused, he said, was the statement made by one of the victims of the occurrence, but, as that statement had not been made with the full knowledge of the deponent of his impending death, it was inadmissible. Even if it 'were admissible it was extremely vague. The Judge commented upon the fact that Ihimaera had said that •if the name he had given was wrong he must change it when Hori came. The accused, concluded the Judge, should not have been committed for trial on such evidence.

The grand jury made a strange decision. It returned a true bill in relation to the shooting of Ihi-

maera, but a no bill in relation to the killing of Mereana. The folloAving day the grand jury changed the true bill to a no bill and the accused received his discharge, in making formal application for Avhieh Mr Singer said it Avas only fair to the accused to state that he was prepared with an overAvbelming defence to the charge.

In A r iew of the fact that the case collapsed as soon as it reached the Supreme Court, the Oromahoe double murder crime must be added to the list of those unsolved. Bv a strange coincidence, the murder now being investigated Avas committed in the Waihou Valley only a feAV miles from Oromahoc.