Tokoroa's talking poles tell Elisabeth Easther stories.

A blaze which tore through a house and car in Tokoroa this morning is being treated as suspicious.

A Rotorua man who was on the scene within seconds of a road worker being shot dead near Tokoroa says the victim was found with a hole in his head.

The family of a roadworker gunned down on an isolated South Waikato road were last night grieving for a cheeky, lovely and gentle man.

Police investigating the fatal shooting of road worker George Taiaroa near Tokoroa yesterday say no one heard gun shots.

A man has been shot and killed this afternoon in a forestry area at Kinleith, near Tokoroa, with police launching a homicide inquiry.

A Tokoroa dog on death row for more than two years with a bill nearing $80,000 in upkeep and legal costs has been sentenced to death.

A 3-week-old boy died with four members of his family in a crash in the Waikato - and may have lain in the wreckage since Sunday night.

Police have named a family of five killed in a Waikato crash, whose bodies were found today, shortly after another fatal accident in the region.

A post-mortem is underway on a body found in a burnt out car in forest between Taupo and Tokoroa yesterday.

Bob Gabolinscy never realised his forehead was streaming with blood after a group of young men attacked him with a pack of pre-mixed drinks outside his home late at night. He was too worried about rescuing his wife Margaret.