Nurka was found with numerous items belonging to a range of settlers. He was committed for trial but was discharged due to a lack of witnesses willing to travel from Port Lincoln to Adelaide.
(See 'The South Australian Frontier and its Legacies' for more details.)

On 21 May 1842, a mounted party of nine men comprised of Hugonin, Driver, several settlers and police coerced a ‘boy’ they had captured to guide them to other Aboriginal people. They came across three men, one of whom (Ngulga) was shot dead, one of whom escaped, and the third of whom (Nurka), was taken prisoner. Soldiers and policemen cut Ngulga’s head from his body and put it on a pole at Pillaworta
(See 'The South Australian Frontier and its Legacies' for more details.)