NO TRACE FOUND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26776, 20 May 1948, Page 8

NO TRACE FOUND

MISSING HORSE TRAINER

DIFFICULTY OFi HOLDING INQUEST p.A AUCKLAND, May 19. Although 12 months will have elapsed since the racehorse trainer. Richmond Stanley Bagby, then aged 44, married, of Ellerslie, disappeared, no authority has been given by the Attorney-general for the holding of an inquest. . . , ». The police are of the opinion that the missing man was probably drowned in the harbour, but they have been unable to -find sufficient direct evidence of this to enable a coroner safely to arrive at a verdict, if an inquest were proceeded with in absence of the body. Bagby's blue two-seater motor car was found unoccupied on the vehicular ferry Francis Peat on the nine o’clock trip from Devonport to Auckland on the night of May 19 of last year about an hour and a-half after he was reported to have left his home. The car was found to be empty when a member of the crew of the ferry checked the tickets five minutes after leaving Devonport. The key was in the ignition switch, and no one was seen to leave on foot when the vessel reached Auckland. Bagby, it is understood, had said earlier that he intended to go to Takapuna.\ Usually in cases where the body cannot be produced the police do not initiate proceedings for an inquest unless they are satisfied that a crime has been committed. Action is more often taken by relatives interested in having the cause of death determined to enable the winding up of an estate.