Police investigate footage near Feilding homicide flat

Police hope security footage shot from across the road towards the Feilding flat where Ted Ferguson and his friend Margaret Waldin were found murdered will provide a lead to the killer.

Cameras from the Feilding Hotel Liquor Store, which is directly opposite the council-owned block where Mr Ferguson and Mrs Waldin were stabbed, cover the road and the entrance.

Anyone going in or out of the Rangimarie Flats from Bowen Street will have been captured on camera entering or leaving the driveway.

Police said yesterday that analysing the footage was their main priority.

The footage could also show police if the killer dumped the murder weapon nearby or what direction he or she went.

A police dive squad from Wellington started searching Feilding's Makino Stream at 8am today for the weapon used to kill Mr Ferguson, 73, and Mrs Waldin, 76.

Another team will search the rooftops and backyards of the industrial area that surrounds the homicide scene, police said this morning.

Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan, heading the 36-strong investigation team said yesterday the offender would need to cross the Makino Stream if he or she left from the rear of the flats.

The other main security footage police are looking at is from the Manchester Tavern where both victims were on Friday night.

Mrs Waldin's body was released to family yesterday after a post mortem and Mr Ferguson's body is due to be released today.

Mrs Waldin's funeral will be held at St Brigid's Catholic Church in Feilding on Saturday at 11am.

Following the double homicide, security patrols are to be stepped up in Feilding and civic leaders are looking to bring surveillance cameras to town.

Feilding Promotion chairman Michael Ford said the security boost would probably be implemented from July 1, when extra funding from Manawatu District Council becomes available.

Mr Ford said the security boost was planned months before the double homicide.

Bowen Street, where Mr Ferguson's flat is, is part of the existing patrol, which is focused on protecting commercial premises in the central business district.

"We are in the process of increasing our foot patrols," Mr Ford said.

Feilding Promotion was also looking to set up a network of surveillance cameras, though funding would have to be found.

Meanwhile, Feilding police have dismissed a link between a complaint of assault by an elderly man and the double homicide in the town, both of which occurred at the weekend.

Sergeant Chris Whitmore said police and ambulance officers attended to a 68-year-old Feilding man about 9pm on Saturday.

He had cuts and grazes to his hands and face.

But Mr Whitmore said the man was "extremely intoxicated and couldn't talk", and ambulance officers advised police his injuries were consistent with falling while intoxicated.

- NZPA