GRIM FIND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26531, 5 August 1947, Page 4

GRIM FIND

MAN’S BODY IN TRENCH NO MARKS OF VIOLENCE WIDESPREAD POLICE INQUIRIES P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 4. In a trench under a former army building, recently erected on the Hereford street frontage of the 1 Canterbury University College block, workmen this morning found the body of William Keefe Olds, aged about 50, of Wellington. The body was covered by a coal sack and shielded by a piece of metal from a tar drum. It is believed that he had been dead only 12 to 20 hours before the discovery at 8.45 a.m. The manner in which the body was hidden led the police to believe that Olds died in suspicious circumstances. A large force of police in both Wellington and Christchurch to-day made widespread inquiries into Olds’s movements towards the end of last week. Olds had been on sick leave from the Census and Statistics Department in Wellington since the middle of July, and he is known to have been in Wellington on that he visited Christchurch for the Grand National race meeting on Friday. He left his bags at N a private boarding-, house in Christchurch and apparently did not return. Workmen’s Discovery John Rand, of South Brighton, and E. Watson, of St. Albans, employees of Vale and Co., Ltd., discovered the body when they were about to crawl beneath the building to attend to some pipes which were lying in a trench 18 inches wide and 18 inches deep to give the workmen access among the foundations. Other tranches had been dug, and that chosen by the workmen contained the body. When they removed the piece of metal leaning against the building and covering the opening to the trench, they discovered the body, almost out of sight, with the head and upper part covered by a coal sack. The body was stretched at full' length, and no evidence of violence was apparent on casual observation. Olds was fully dressed in a blue pinstripe suit, and his collar and tie were not badly disarranged. He wore an R.S.A. badge, No. 26499, of the First WoiTd War. There was no overcoat or hat, but the dead man was wearing his shoes. A Post Office Savings Bank book found among other documents in his pockets showed that he was in a sound financial position, but no money was found. Information Sought After photographs had been taken and the surroundings searched by the police, the body was removed to the morgue at the Christchurch Public Hospital for a post-mortem examination, which will probably be made by the chief pathologist, Dr A. B. Pearson. An inquest will be opened to-morrow. In the meantime, the superintendent of police in Christchurch, Mr H. Scott, has asked anyone who can give information regarding Olds’s movements on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to advise the police. Mr Scott said that the careful manner in which the body was hidden was a suspicious circumstance.