CANCELLATION OF VERDICT

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1931, Page 6

CANCELLATION OF VERDICT

CAR PLUNGES INTO LAGOON ALLEGATIONS BY RELATIVES. WAS CAR FORCED OFF ROAD? By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Jan. 15. _ After the coroner had returned his verdict at the inquest on John Charles Styche, who was found drowned in a “baby” ear in a lagoon near St. Leonards early -on the morning, of January 4, events took a somewhat sensational turn when a relative of tae dead man stepped forward to challenge the police reconstruction of the accident. Although Styche left Dunedin after the theatre to drive home to Port Chalmers in a car of which ho took delivery that afternoon, the police evidence was that the position of the car indicated that it had left the road when travelling from Port Chalmers. . Styche’s relatives said they believed that the marks found, on which the police based their theory, were made by a car of similar make, which was parked at that spot nearly every night. Their belief was that Styche haff been forced off the road by another car travelling round the corner on the wrong side. The coroner then cancelled his verdict, adjourning the inquest for investigation.