FARM TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 237, 4 September 1933, Page 8

FARM TRAGEDY.

YOUNG WOMAN’S DEATH

Per Press Association

TAUMARUNUI, Sept. 3. A shocking tragedy was revealed about 8.30 this morning in the township of Owhango, 15 miles south of Taumarunui, when the body of Miss Jean Rosoman, aged 23, was found in the rear of a milking shed with a bullet-wound in her head and other injuries caused apparently by a pickhandle.

It appears that Miss Rosoman and Mr and Mrs D. Laing and a child, aged 10, had been milking, and had returned from the shed to the house. After breakfast Miss Rosoman returned to the milking shed to clean the cans, and Mr Laing went to the paddocks. The children were playing on the road near the milking shed. The children heard the rattling of the tins in the cowshed, and went over to see what it was, when they found the girl’s body. They called their father and mother.

The children state that they saw a. man wearing a white shirt and trousers disappearing across the paddocks. The body when found was lying in a crouched position at • the rear of the separator room. The head was knocked about and a bullet apparently had entered the head from the back. When the Taumarunui police arrived they found a pick-handle with hair on it near the body. Further investigation showed a bullet imbedded in the wall near where the girl was washing the cans. It would seem that the girl was shot through the head and then struck a blow with the pick-handle. So far no arrest has been made. Two spent cartridge cases were found in the separator room, but no rifle. Detectives J. Walsh and J. Murray arrived this afternoon.

Miss Rosoman was employed by the Laings, with whom she lived. The scene of the tragedy is in the main street in Owhango, not far from the railway station.