Another Aborigine Murdered, This Time Near Canberra

by Ewa Kretowicz

from The Canberra Times

South Coast police are investigating the apparent bashing death of a 57-year-old Narooma man.

The man, identified as Sam Connelly, appears to have been brutally beaten and left for dead on the stairs to his apartment yesterday morning. Police are questioning several men in relation to the incident.

They were called to the Harper Crescent units at 11pm on Thursday to investigate a disturbance and again at 4am yesterday, when they found Mr Connelly bleeding from a head wound. 

He was taken to hospital but died before reaching Moruya.

South Coast area command superintendent Michael Willing said police had not identified a weapon used to assault Mr Connelly or the cause of death. The post-mortem is expected to take place on Monday. Superintendent Willing said, ''He was found outside, literally on the stairs so at the moment we don't know until such time we can look in the units and do the examination of them and piece together what happened; we don't know.

''We are treating this suspiciously. I've got detectives from far South Coast command, based in Batemans Bay, with support from southern region command, and the homicide unit has been informed as well.'' 

Mr Connelly was an Aboriginal man known in the area as ''Gadget''. 

He had previously lived in Wallaga Lake Koori Village. The indigenous housing reserve between Tilba and Bermagui has views to the Pacific Ocean and the name Narooma comes from the Aboriginal word meaning clear, blue water.

Superintendent Willing said Mr Connelly's death was a tragedy.

''He's a local identity, he's been known to police for a long time for a range of reasons,'' he said. ''Part of the investigation we will be looking at his background and those associated with him and his history to try and identify motives and those that could be responsible for this thing.'' 

A man was arrested at the scene for an unrelated offence.

It is believed Mr Connelly lived alone on the top floor of the two-storey apartment block. 

Forensic investigators arrived at the Harper Crescent address at 1.20pm from Goulburn.

A witness who found Mr Connelly called the ambulance.

Police blocked the street and sealed the area to conduct forensic tests, diverting traffic away from the bottom of Willcock Avenue.

The forensic examination is expected to take three days.