Corey

The Hay Paddock On Wednesday the 12th February 2008 the phone rings at the Otorohanga Police Station. Fiona Scott is ringing to say her husband is missing and has not been seen for two days. A month later Murray Brandon heads down the road to start mowing his hay paddock by the river, about 10 minutes later the blades on the mower jam up. He thinks he has hit a rock but when he goes to look, he finds blood and body parts everywhere, he throws up. He races back to his house on his motorbike to ring the police. He is as white as a ghost and his wife Helen asks him what is wrong. About 45 mins later 14 policemen, 1 dog handler and an ambulance arrive. First on the scene is senior detective Hamilton and his assistant Brian. Murray shows them where the body is from a distance, because he thinks he knows who it is. The police set to work with the crime scene, looking for clues to how the body came to be there and where the body came from? At the scene they find a watch, some clothing and gumboots, but they are badly cut up from the mower. Senior detective Hamilton says it will be hard to know how he died, because he is so badly cut up from the mower blades. Everyone is talking about the body in the hay paddock and who it might be.” Is it John who is missing or is it someone else?’’ A day later they find a piece of the body with two burn like marks on it. Senior detective Hamilton asks Murray if he recognized anything they found on or near the body. Murray looks at the photos detective Brian showed him, he looks at the photo of the watch for a long time. “I think this is the watch Helen and I gave John for his birthday two years ago,” says Murray. “Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt John?” asks detective Hamilton. Murray thinks for a bit, “The new stock agent, Jim did not agree with John on the price he wanted to pay John for his stock and they nearly got into a fight”. After a few days the lab results came back, Senior Detective Hamilton and Detective Brian have to tell John’s wife Fiona that the body found in the hay paddock was John. They told her that it looked like he was murdered (But who did it?) Later on that week they get some news about Jim the stock agent’s past, he had been in jail for 3 years for theft. A few hours later senior detective Hamilton gets a search warrant to search stock agent Jim’s house and work place. When they arrive they see a house, a small shipping container used as an office and a paddock with no grass, only mud. The paddock was full of skinny, sick looking sheep. As the police start to look around, Jim starts to look nervous. A young police officer checks a cattle truck parked in the driveway. He finds an empty box which should contain a cattle prodder. They ask Jim where the cattle prodder is, he says he used it yesterday to get 4 sheep into his Ute. But when they check his Ute and paperwork they find no prodder or records of 4 sheep being purchased. Detective Hamilton questions Jim about the last time he saw John and what they said to each other. “John thought I was not giving him a fair price for his stock and that I was selling sheep off that were not in very good condition. He also said that I was giving him a bad name” said Jim. Detective Brian looks back at the paddock, he knows he will be reporting this to the SPCA. Next minute the police dog handler yells out, “I have found something!” Detective Hamilton and Brian head over to the shipping container where they have found a loose floor board. As they start to pull up the boards Jim tries to leave but he is blocked in. They start to dig and soon uncover a wool bag with the cattle prodder inside. When the officer goes to pick it up he gets a shock from it. Jim says he didn’t know how it got there! Senior Detective Hamilton says, “I am arresting you on the suspicion of the murder of John the farmer”. Back at the lab they check the body part with the black mark on it and the cattle prodder (they fit). Back at the Station they start to question Jim about John’s murder. “Why did you kill John?” asked Senior Detective Hamilton. Jim said “John came around to my house and saw the paddock full of skinny, sick looking sheep. He got mad and said that he would spread the word not to use me as a stock agent; he said he was going to report me to the SPCA. I had just been using the cattle prodder to move some stock on to my truck. I thought I would scare him with it but when I went to poke him in the arm he moved and I got him in the chest. He fell forward onto the prodder which kept working and zapped him. I panicked and dumped his body in the long grass. I thought it was John’s farm and if they found him they would think he had a heart attack”. Jim was charged for the murder of John and at court he was given life in jail. At John’s funeral everyone said what a good farmer he was and how he had always helped everyone. By Corey Fox