TUAKAU MYSTERY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18584, 19 December 1934, Page 5

TUAKAU MYSTERY

MAN FOUND SHOT V UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES POLICE INVESTIGATIONS (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, last night. The mystery, of the death of Charles Raymond Finch, who was found shot in a paddock near Tuakau on Sunday evening, deepens rather than clears. as investigations bring fresh facts to light. Finch had left town about 5 p.m. to go shooting rabbits and had followed the railway line south. He was found lying dead just over a fence from' the line by Messrs. H. Y. Bevington and H". Barnaby, two members of the Tuakau Post Office staff, who were also out shooting rabbits. His gun, a .22 calibre single shot rifle, was lying under him. There were two wounds in the body and one in the temple. It is now clear that the three wounds were all caused by pea rifle bullets of .22 calibre. Two bullets were found in the body during the post-mortem and the search for the third, which passed right through the body-, was continued to-day. Detectives obtained a shovel and pick, and, working under a tarpaulin erected on long stakes as a shelter from rain and sun, removed the grass where Finch’s body was found.

THIRD BULLET FOUND They thoroughly examined the grass and roots with their lingers and then sieved' the soil over an area of about 6ft. square and to a depth of about Sin. /Their efforts were rewarded about midday, Detective MeWhirter finding a .22 bullet in the soil below the grass and Constable Quinn finding an empty cartridge case embedded in the ground a few inches away. A detail made clear to-day was that Finch’s body was found with the shirt pulled up and this explains \tfhy there was no bullet hole in the shirt coiresponding with the lower wound in the abdomen. Alongside the body was .an open packet of pearifle cartridges with three unused cartridges in it. The fullest inquiries reveal only that Finch, who was 26 years of age, was very well regarded as .one of Tuakau’s most promising young men. He was a member of 'the Anglican vestry, t i ' Odfcllowp’ Lodge, and the cricket club, and was formerly a Rugby player, making an excellent halfback for the Franklin junior representatives.. A perusal by detectives of letters and papers at Finch’s homo revealed nothing that would indicate that there was some person with a grudge against him. 'He had planned a surfing holiday at Tauranga for the coming vacation.

The shooting accident occurred near Tuakau early on Sunday evening, the victim being Mr. Raymond Finch, 25, a well-known Tuakau business man, who was found cUad about a mile and a-half from Tuakau. Mr. Finch left.Tuakau about 5 p.m. to shoot rabbits, and had with him a .22 calibre single-shot rifle. About 6.30 Messrs. 11. V. Bevington and H. Barnaby, of the staff of the Tuakau post office, who were also out shooting, passed along the railway line. About a mile and a-half from the town they heard the sound of someone breathing heavily, the sound coming from a paddock near the line. On looking over a fence they saw a man, lying face downward in a hollow. Thinking ho was sleeping, they proceeded on their way. On returning to tho locality bn their way hame the two men again looked in the paddock to see whether the man was still there, but there was no sound of breathing. They therefore investigated more closely, discovering that tho man bad a bullet wound in the bead and jpe through the stomach. His rifle was jubder him and had been discharged, jifear by was a dead rabbit. Detectives fiom Auckland are investigating Mr. Finch’? death. It is thought he was accidentally and unknowingly shot in the 1 ead by someone who was shooting in the vicinity, and that, as he fell, his c-vn rifle discharged, inflicting the wound in the stomach.