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Farmers death leads to lengthy investigation
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR Godfrey Watson always knew the hunt for 71-year-old
Jack Nicholas’s killer would be a lengthy investigation.
As Ten-One Community Edition went to print, Operation Kaweka was ending
its third week, with Godfrey adamant the killer would be brought to
justice. “I’m
absolutely confident,” he says. “The enquiry has a positive feel
about it. It’s like a puzzle. We don’t have that big piece of
information at the moment, but we have lots of little pieces that are
helping to create the big picture.”
Godfrey, OC of the investigation, was called to Napier Police Station
soon after Mr Nicholas was found dead at the gate to his remote Hawke’s
Bay farm in the early hours of Friday 27 August. The elderly farmer had died
from a gun shot wound.
A group of police officers, including the AOS, were deployed to place
road blocks around the area and conduct an air and ground search. That continued
for most of the day, while a scene investigation and inquiry team were also
established. “The initial team involved 20 staff and that grew to 30.
We are up to about 40 staff now [as at 10 September],” he says. Good
cooperation has also been received from out-of-town police, brought in to
assist.
The initial scene investigation proved difficult. “The conditions were
terrible. There was very heavy snow and frost.” A bottle of coke left
in the scene caravan froze over night. However, things improved with the Red
Cross setting up a camp to provide meals for staff.
Godfrey says police are investigating a number of angles, including
footage from community-owned surveillance cameras, vehicle and car sightings
and Jack’s journals and papers. There has also been good information
provided by the public. “There was not a lot of information coming in
at the beginning, but it has increased significantly. Right from the start
it was clear this was going to be a lengthy investigation. We had nothing
to give an early indication why this happened and it wasn’t clear as
to what the motive was. We are having to work carefully through this information
as it comes to hand.”
Staff have worked, and continue to work, long hours. “It has been pretty
difficult and frustrating not getting that big piece of information,” says
Godfrey. “But we have been buoyed along by the increased flow of information.”
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