KEY POINTS:
A police dog search of remote countryside where farmer Jack Nicholas was shot almost four years ago was abandoned within hours with no trace of an offender, a High Court trial in Napier was told yesterday.
The search of farmland at Makahu, in the foothills of the Kaweka Ranges, was made by Senior Constable Robert Hogan and dog Blitz, called in from Napier about 70 minutes after 71-year-old Mr Nicholas died outside his homestead on August 27, 2004.
The dog handler said he was notified at 7.39am and drove immediately to rendezvous with other officers at the farm, northwest of Puketitiri.
He arrived about 8.45am but was on his way home before midday, unable to find anything either on the road leading to the farm, or a paddock which was targeted because two .308 cartridges were found near its gate.
Mr Hogan was giving evidence on the sixth day of the trial of Murray Kenneth Foreman, 51, who lived on the coast at Haumoana at the time and who denies shooting Mr Nicholas, or even being in the area.
The cartridges were found beside a post at the top of the driveway leading to the homestead where Mr Nicholas lived with wife Agnes.
She had raised the alarm with a 111 call at 7.08am.
Mr Hogan said he put Blitz on a tracker harness but there was no evidence of anyone having fled into the surrounding bush. The search lasted about 45 minutes.
The Crown has now called 26 of its 90 witnesses in a trial expected to last up to eight weeks.
- NZPA
