COFFIN FOUND TO BE EMPTY.

Western Star, 14 March 1939, Page 3

COFFIN FOUND TO BE EMPTY.

POLICE OPEN GRAVE IN AUCKLAND.

FRIEND, OF McKAY ARRESIED

'SENSATIONAL'.TURN TO PIHA p» fiiie case-. * AUCKLAND March 10. A sensational turn was given, today to what has become kflown as the Rihfire case when the police opened the . grave of a returned soldier buried uv Hie Waikumete 'cemetery, found the coffi ' empty, and two hour* later, # wrested Jami Arthur Talbot, a close fnend .°f Gordon Thomas McKay, the Australian -who has been missing since the mysten-. ous burning of a seaside bach at 1 a < February 12. Talbot was charged undei the Crimes Act with improperly inter-

fering with human remains. This was the second grave within tm past week that had-been opened by tm authorities under Warrant from the Minister of Health (the Hon. P. *ra-G- ---. The case has excited the close mteres. and attention of the public and within a remarkably short time today the my rang with the news that the. police . had taken the first major step in tne:i investigations since they began then inquiries on' February 16. Detective Sergeants J. Txethewey and F. N. Aplu, under the direction of Inspector R. J Ward, had worked unceasingly in many diverse directions, but the trend o.

events was held a close secret. SCIENCE EMPLOYED. Science and the' work of experience!, .detectives have been closely associate!, jn the Pihai case since the afternoon c Wednesday, 1 ebruivy 15, when tvm Auckland solicitors received cabled »« formation that McKay, who was reported to have perished in a bach that w:i bunied to-the ground early in tm morning of Februa.vy 12, was insure! for an aggregate of £50,000. It was at the request of three Australian ln.sui ft nce companies that the Auckland po ic j began to make inquiries. There wer e many issues confronting the two detectives. One was that. although the bach burned lor scaicely men,, than half an hour, the only apparently human remains found among the pile of charred wood and ashfes w-ro a small section of what anight have been the front- or back of a skull, a few fragments of bone and some vertey.nu\ Although McKay bad full upper artilicia.l and partkil lower artificial net) ri„ teeth wej'e found on the site f! r y?. 0 bach. A„ Auckland dentist ha? stated that the fused porcelain teetli wen by McKay would have withstood tbe I'e beat of a crematorium. -'I he - police were unable to (bid anv traces of jawbones or thigh bones. The complexion of the- inquiry seem(M| to assume m« Ve serious p-roporiions when a partv of police. airompamed by an official from the Health Department, disinterred remains which bad been * 1,111 ied in the Waikumete cemeteiv On Wcdnesdi-.v. December 15. Ibe ttinanis vee v,-tabled l,v the police, who. upon tbc re'e-n ,? Dr W. G. Oiluiour pith ( -.i (l „j.t lb- Auckland Hospital. subnetted them for pathological exuininaJj umieistood .that here .scieive boimn 1 . p’;iiv im pmt. A piece of skull

shewed like.- t’m fa-l’hm of a mams cupprd hand contnincd a cerHn material, jinxed with wm-b. nsb and dirt-. Patbfe, engaged in the cxarninatmii no. 'ticeri I hat a-mouc file substances in the piece of skull was a,n article which gave ■fl-e that if could have come thorn (' -ouffb i'.-,oOciation with someone wh&bad recently received treatment *t

a hospital. Persistent and careful anfflyses, it is said, eventually helped tjhe doctors to arrive at a certain conclusion and one day this week a-Sugge-tion was made to the detectives, INQUIRIES AT CEMETERIES Meanwhile Detective-Sergeants Trethowey and Alpin had been working 111 concert along lines suggestive of a possible result. They caused confidential inquiries to be made at cemeteries as far north as Helcnsville and as tar south a s Bombay. Altogether t ley checked the dates of burial and the ages and sex of every person buried within a certain period in 30 cemeteues in the Auckland province. The result of research by the pathologists engaged Dr Gilmour, Mr Kenneth MacCornnck and Dr E. F. Fowler, and the widespread search for information by the detectives prompted the police to seek a second warrant of exhumation from the Minister of Health. On Wednesday afternoon the warrant was received. Just after five o’clock tlii s morning four doctors and two detectives and a representative of the Department of Health gathered iound the grave of Patrick Henry Shine, who died at tne Auckland hospital on February 8 and was buried the following day. The grave was opened and the coffin lais to the surface. When the coffin had been opened it was empty. The police returned to the city and at 10 o clock the police intercepted Talbot as he was walking along Customs street west and a few minutes later charged him with allegedly improperly interfering with human remains. ’