MILLIONAIRE DISAPPEARS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1930, Page 7

MILLIONAIRE DISAPPEARS

SHOOTING AFFRAY SEQUEL

CANADIAN RANCH MYSTERY

ONE KILLED; ONE INJURED

SEARCH FOR AN AUSTRALIAN

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. 1 Vancouver. Oct. 15.

Mystery surrounds the disappearance of Cosen Spencer, a wealthy British Columbia rancher, formerly a millionaire Australian film magnate, after fatally shooting Edward Smith, his storekeeper, and wounding another employee, W. Stoddard, who had an arm shot off. The mystery has now so deepened that it is even suspected he may have managed to make his way back to Australia, At the time of the shooting Spencer fled to the bush. A shot was heard, but a thorough search failed to reveal a body. It was believed that he drowned himself, but a search of the lake was unavailing. Days later a neighbouring rancher reported seeing an aeroplane some miles away from the scene the day after the tragedy. Spencer ran a 20,000-acre cattle ranch, the largest in British Columbia. After coming here from Australia six years ago with £1,000,000 made in Australian films he suffered a nervous collapse after heavy losses in the stock market crash, but refused to enter a sanatorium. It is revealed also that Spencer was worrying over his inability to secure money allegedly owing in Australia and he was obsessed ■with a false idea that his neighbours were stealing his prize cattle bred in England.