Skull found on Paraparaumu Beach with gunshot wound - experts reveal likely victim

A skull found in the sand on a Kāpiti Coast beach likely belonged to a young woman struck by a musket ball, according to an analysis by several specialists.

The discovery of the skull on Paraparaumu Beach by a member of the public in 2022 has not previously been made public.

It came to light after the Herald was granted access to coronial documents regarding sets of unidentified remains discovered in New Zealand in recent years.

Who did the skull belong to?

Historian Michael Belgrave said he believed the woman was most likely tangata whenua killed from about 1819 during the Musket Wars.

Her death could have come as a taua (war party) involving Te Rauparaha and Ngāti Toa’s northern allies headed south in 1819 along the Kāpiti Coast, or possibly during another battle in the region five years later, Belgrave said.

Coroner Rachael Schmidt-McCleave, in a written notification of her decision not to open a full inquiry into the death, concluded the skull likely belonged to a female aged between 16 and 24 and born between 1660 and 1900.

Her conclusion came after she received advice from several specialists including a pathologist and anthropologist.

As a result, Schmidt-McCleave found a full inquiry was not required. The Coroners Act also only allows an inquiry to be opened if the death is likely to have happened within the last 100 years, she said.

She directed police to provide the remains to local iwi.

The Herald sought comment from Ngāti Toa and Te Ātiawa ki Kāpiti. A Ngāti Toa iwi representative did not wish to comment.

Police received the report of a skull found by a member of the public in the sand of Paraparaumu Beach on June 21, 2022.

Forensic pathologist Len Wakefield in his initial inquiry found it was a human skull with teeth present with two holes in the skull.

Bone fragments indicated something had entered through the right of the skull and exited through the left.

The view south from Paraparaumu Beach. A taua involving Te Rauparaha fought its way down the coast in 1819, possibly when the young woman was killed, according to historian Michael Belgrave. Her skull was found in the sand at Paraparaumu Beach more than 200 years later. Photo / David Haxton

Another forensic pathologist, Judy Melinek, concluded the holes in the skull were consistent with a perforating gunshot wound, right to left, slightly back to front and downwards.

Melinek said that given the age of the skull, the defect she identified could have been caused by a projectile fired by a musket.

But there was no way to reliably distinguish a musket ball gunshot wound from a modern handgun wound when the projectile has perforated the body, Melinek said.

Forensic odontologist Mat Popham concluded the teeth showed no evidence of dental restoration and was of the opinion they suggested an age range of 16 to 24 years old.

Anthropologist Professor Judith Littleton examined the skull and noted it was found where Māori remains have previously been recorded archaeologically.

She concluded the skull was of a “female juvenile aged between 10 and 20 years at the time of death (12-19 years the most likely age)”, the coroner said.

“Ancestry is ambiguous and is unable to be determined, particularly given the young age of the individual to whom the skull belonged.”

Associate Professor Fiona Petchey, of Waikato University, conducted radiocarbon analysis, according to the coroner’s report.

“Because of the absence of a particular carbon found in the bones of everyone alive after 1950 due to atmospheric nuclear testing at the time, Associate Professor Petchey was of the view that the individual to whom the skull belonged did not live after 1950 and has a 90.6% probability that she was last alive sometime between AD 1660 and 1900,” the coroner said.

“Associate Professor Petchey gave a 4.9% probability that the individual was alive between AD 1920 and 1950.”

Victim likely local girl - historian

Belgrave is the author of the recently released Becoming Aotearoa: A New History of New Zealand and an Emeritus Professor of History at Massey University who has previously been a research manager at the Waitangi Tribunal.

He said it was “highly likely” the young woman died sometime during the Musket Wars in the Kāpiti region.

There were no muskets in the region in any significant numbers until the arrival of the great Ngati Toa rangatira Te Rauparaha in 1819 as part of a taua fighting its way south, he said.

In his view, it was very unlikely, though not impossible, that she was killed earlier, as there were whalers around the area who used muskets.

The 1819 Ngāti Toa taua, also involving some northern allies like Ngāpuhi, fought their way down the coast and into Wairarapa before returning, making peace arrangements as they came north, so the woman was likely to have been killed during the original journey south, Belgrave said.

Police were alerted after an unidentified member of the public found the skull in the sand at Paraparaumu Beach. Photo / David Haxton

The migration was very much a war party at that stage, so it’s most likely she lived in the area, though the group did sometimes take captives, he said.

“She’s more likely to be one of the tangata whenua who gets killed at that point.”

Belgrave said that while the group would have been killing people at various villages on its way south, the possibility she was shot by accident should not be discounted given the limited accuracy of muskets compared to rifles.

“These things were not the most reliable weapons.”

Another possibility cited by Belgrave was the Battle of Waiorua in 1824, fought on Kāpiti Island in 1824 between Ngati Toa and Ngati Kahungunu, Muaupoko, Ngati Apa, Rangitaane and Whanganui iwi.

Belgrave said the skull was not evidence of muskets being in regular use in New Zealand before the 19th century, as is sometimes suggested when similar koiwi (human skeletal remains) are found, and something for which he said there is no historical basis.