Maori Converted Motor Car And Then Shot Himself
RAETIHI, Last Night (OC)—A verdict of death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound* was returned by the district coroner, Mr. W. H. Sandford, at an inquest on Turahi Ponga, aged 22 years, whose death occurred on August. 13.
The evidence teni* ed by the police showed that in the early hours of the morning of August 13 Ponga had unlawfully converted a motor truck, which he put out of action by running It into a telephone pole on the Ohakune highway.
Disappearing immediately after the smash, he apparently walked to Mangaeturoa, some four miles distant, where he borrowed a shotgun from a cousin, ostensibly for shooting rabbits. Shortly afterward, a shot was heard about 100 yards from the house of the cousin, Taurenowa, and Ponya was found in a small denression in the naddock with a wound close to the heart. Death, apparently, was instantaneous.
It appeared that Ponga had placed the muzzle of the gun against his body and the butt against, n bank, using a stick to apply pressure to the trigger.
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Wanganui Chronicle, 7 September 1950, Page 7
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181Maori Converted Motor Car And Then Shot Himself Wanganui Chronicle, 7 September 1950, Page 7
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