CENTRAL FIGURES IN WHAREKURI TRAGEDY

NZ Truth, Issue 1017, 23 May 1925, Page 5

CENTRAL FIGURES IN WHAREKURI TRAGEDY

Above are photographs of Olive Jean Rutherford (found dying on April 22) and Philip Richard Hudson (found dead last Tuesday ia the Waitaki river after weeks of search), the central figures m the Wharekuri tragedy, Otago. At the foot of a cliff, and near the Waitaki river, were found the battered motor car they m, and the girl with a bullet wound m her head. She died later, and apparently made no statement. Whether the bullet wound was inflicted before, or after, the car Avent over, the cliff, and how the car went over the cliff, no one seems to know. Following ,the discovery of the tragedy, a search began for Hudson aiid his rifle. Speculation pivoted on. whether he was drowned m the river, or at large on the hills ; but the reported discovery of the body m the river, twenty miles below the tragic cliff, seems to set all doubt at rest. Olive Rutherford was aged eighteen, Philip Hudson nineteen. They were affianced. A warrant had been issued for Hudson's arrest on v a charge of murde^. , i ( v\ "