NT: Police say former All Black could be questioned again

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-2001
NT: Police say former All Black could be questioned again

By Rod McGuirk

DARWIN, Dec 7 AAP - Former All Black Keith Murdoch could be questioned by police again
in a renewed investigation into how a man came to die in a central Australia mine, police
said today.

The investigation follows a coroner's inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Limerick,
20, who vanished shortly after burgling Mr Murdoch's home in Tennant Creek in the Northern
Territory on October 6 last year.

That night or early the next morning, Mr Limerick was taken 15km to the abandoned Noble's
Nob open-cut gold mine where his body was found three weeks later, Coroner Greg Cavanagh
found in October this year.

The coroner also found that crimes of unlawful assault and deprivation of liberty may
have been committed in connection with the tragedy.

Alice Springs detectives travelled 500km to Tennant Creek this week to take new statements
from witnesses about the night Mr Limerick disappeared.

"We're double-checking certain aspects of people's testimony," Detective Sergeant John
Nixon said.

"The coroner wanted aspects of the circumstances of how Limerick got to Noble's Nob investigated.

"It's possible (that Mr Murdoch will be questioned)."

Police were not investigating how Mr Limerick died but whether the crime of deprivation
of liberty was committed when he was taken to the mine, Sgt Nixon said.

"It'll be a matter of a short time (before the investigation is complete)," he said.

Mr Cavanagh found Mr Limerick, abandoned in stifling heat and desperately thirsty,
had stumbled while walking to a pool of water at the bottom of the mine.

He remained where he fell and died from exposure, the coroner found.

Mr Cavanagh also found Mr Murdoch's memory was selective in his answers to the inquest
and to police who investigated Mr Limerick's suspicious death.

Mr Murdoch, who in 1971 became the only New Zealand rugby international to be sent
home from a tour for misbehaviour, told the inquest he did not recall an incident at his
home the night Mr Limerick vanished.

But Mr Cavanagh found Mr Murdoch confronted and threatened Mr Limerick as his neighbours
had testified.

"In my view, Mr Murdoch gave his evidence in a cavalier and disingenuous fashion,"

Mr Cavanagh said.

"Mr Murdoch was determined to protect himself and his associates from being accused
in relation to this confrontation."

The former prop forward triggered a national police manhunt in June when he could not
be found to testify at the inquest.

AAP rmg/ns/de

KEYWORD: MURDOCH

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