Alfred Helge Hansen and Gaye Carole Hansen, an old couple from New Zealand, were discovered dead in a pasture. It was later revealed that a violent sheep was the culprit.
A remote rental house in Waitākere, West Auckland, was home to an elderly couple. When the son went in search of them, he discovered his parents’ bodies in the property’s paddock. The pair resided on their hobby farm on Anzac Valley Rd for eight years, where they raised sheep, chickens, and cattle.
Alfred, according to the police, was killed as he walked outside to feed the ram, and his wife, Gayle, met the same tragic end when she went to see her husband. When the police arrived at the scene of the crime, which occurred at around 7:30 a.m. local time, they located the ram in the paddock.
The ram had assaulted another individual at the site, inflicting minor injuries on them as well. The hostile animal was shot and killed on the spot by the police. According to family spokesman and nephew Dean Burrell, who talked with reporters, the couple had both lost their lives in a tragic accident.
A postmortem examination is scheduled for Friday, and police are now investigating the fatalities on behalf of the coroner to determine the whole set of facts surrounding what happened in the paddock.
Rams are known to attack, although it is unusual for someone to be killed, according to animal behaviorist Mark Vette, who has over 50 years of experience dealing with animals. According to him, it’s rather unusual for rams to cause serious injuries, although it’s typical for people to be knocked down and roughed up.
Since the bases of the horns were still there, rogue rams could inflict significant harm even without visible horns. Those without the physical ability to leap over a fence or flee would face a considerable challenge if a ram surrounded them.
There was a police presence all day Thursday, and two ambulances filled with St. John medics arrived at the scene early in the day.
