Reports coming from Kuru Kururu indicate that farmer Mark Ritchie who was robbed and murdered there two Tuesdays ago knew the men who attacked him while he and his family were sleeping.
Meanwhile, police are continuing a manhunt on the basis of information gathered during the course of their investigations. The police had also reported on Monday that a suspect led them to a farm cultivated with cannabis in the Kuru Kururu backlands.
A source informed this newspaper that Ritchie had sold a large quantity of marijuana shortly before his demise. He had indicated to the men with whom he worked on his farm that they would be paid from the proceeds of the sale. The man apparently did not pay the men as promised so he was attacked on the night in question. The three men escaped with a significant quantity of cash and jewellery after tying up the man’s family with duct tape.
According to a police press release on Monday, investigators found and destroyed a cannabis farm of about 1 1/2 acres divided into two separate cultivations with about 3,000 plants between six inches and four feet tall, with an estimated weight of 120 kg.
Police said two camps, one of which was previously inhabited by the deceased, contained 30 kg of dried cannabis, while the other, occupied by another suspect was found with a 12-gauge improvised shotgun which has since been taken into custody.
