TWO BOYS FOUND DEAD

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1935, Page 6

TWO BOYS FOUND DEAD

BOTH WOUNDED IN HEAD

ACCIDENT NEAR TAUMARUNUI.

FORBIDDEN TO TAKE SHOTGUN.

FIREARM HIDDEN IN BLANKET.

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright Taumarunui, Last Night.

A shooting tragedy occurred at Otunui, seven miles from Taumarunui, yesterday resulting in the death of. Trevor Dean, aged six, son of Anthony Dean, a roadman, and George Sawyer Robson, aged 14, a brother-in-law of Anthony Dean, with whom they both lived. The boy Robinson went to the river about half a mile from the house yesterday morning accompanied by Trevor Dean to wash a blanket, taking with him a small calibre shotgun which was hidden in a cupboard and which he was forbidden to use.

They were last seen alive by a neighbouring farmhand at 10 a.m. when both were running across a swing bridge.

Dean’s parents became anxious when the boys did not come in for lunch and set out to search for them at 3 o’clock. Both were found dead at 5 o’clock in fem and scrub near the river.

When Trevor Dean was found his body was lying face down with shotgun wounds in the face and head and a hand which he had evidently been holding up for protection. The body of the other boy was lying a few feet away on its side with a double-barrelled shotgun between the legs and one hand round the barrel. There was a gunshot wound in the head. Trevor Dean was a quarter-caste Maori and George Robson was a half-caste. The gun was used by Anthony Dean for shooting rabbits. It is surmised that the boy Robson hid it in a blanket when he set out from the house.