Security pictures used to identify Feilding hotel patrons

Police investigating the slaying of Feilding friends Margaret Waldin and Ted Ferguson are using security camera footage to identify everyone in the hotel where the pair spent some time before their deaths.

Mrs Waldin, 76, and Mr Ferguson, 73, were found dead with stab wounds in Mr Ferguson's flat on Sunday May 29.

They had been in the Manchester Tavern in Feilding two days before, on Friday night.

Police spokesman Inspector Dave White today said police had been using video footage from the hotel to try to get the names of up to 60 people who had been in the bar.

To do that investigators had been showing people photographs of those who had been in the tavern, he said.

The Dominion Post today quoted a local bar worker as saying police had visited bars on Friday with a picture of a young man wearing a hoodie.

But Mr White said police were not interested in any one person in particular.

"The word suspect is not a word we have used at all. These were simply people who were in the bar and we need to speak to them," he said.

Police wanted to speak to everyone in the bar to get the names of other people who had been in the hotel and to pinpoint the movements of Mr Ferguson and Mrs Waldin.

Mr White said police had yet to say what time they thought the two had left the Manchester.

Most staff in the inquiry team were getting a day off during the weekend, but investigations were continuing, he said.

As well as trying to identify all those at the hotel and to pinpoint the victims' movements, staff were also continuing the scene examination which should finish in the next few days.

Meanwhile, about 200 people packed St Brigid's Catholic Church in Feilding on Saturday to farewell Mrs Waldin.

Father Percy Kimble told mourners on a cold Feilding morning that the Bible tells them good people will suffer in this world, but that they will be rewarded in the afterlife.

Anger and revenge were normal emotions to be feeling as people grieved for the fun-loving mother, grandmother and friend, he said.

Two women took turns translating the service into sign language for Mrs Waldin's deaf granddaughter, who is pregnant with the great-grandchild the victim had been so looking forward to seeing.

Mr Ferguson's funeral will be held at St Paul's Presbyterian Church, in Feilding, tomorrow.

Police have also told people not to take the law into their own hands in the wake of the killings.

Inquiry head Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan said yesterday any vigilante action would be "not helpful".

His comments came after one man -- a Feilding pensioner friendly with the dead couple -- claimed to know the house where the killers live.

The 70-year-old said he keeps two rifles in his Feilding home for his own protection and has been to the suspect house intent on having it out with the occupants.

In a Sunday newspaper story, the man said he was unsure whether he would sort out the alleged offenders with dynamite or use his bare hands to enforce justice.

- NZPA