DOUBLE TRAGEDY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 90, 26 January 1928, Page 5

DOUBLE TRAGEDY

MAH AND WSFE BEAD. FOUND SHOT IN A HOUSE. BOTH HEADS BLOWN OFF. i Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. What appears to be murder and suicide occurred at 12 Raymond Road, Point Chevalier, this l morning. A labourer named Peter Clas and his wife were found dead, the woman's body being in the bedroom and the husband' at the door. A single-barreled gun had been used. - * Both bodies had their heads blown off. show that Peter Closs, aged about 32, was discovered just before noon lying in the back doorway in his pyjamas, with his head shattered by the discharge of a single-barrelled sporting gun, which lay across his body. In the front bedroom was found the corpse of his wife, Mabel Closs*, whose skull was blown almost completely away, the gun having evidently been fired at her from behind as she lay in the bed. The body of Mrs Closs was clothed in a nightgown. Her hair was. about her shoulders, suggesting that she was shot in her sleep. There were two beds in the room, Mrs Closs occupying the one nearest the window. The second bed, which . had been slept in, was unoccupied. The police have formed a theory that the woman was shot by her husband as he sat on his bed. Closs had evidently left the bedroom and, passed tnrough the sitting-room, emptying and reloading the gun as he went. An empty cartridge case was found lying in the middle of the floor, near an open gramophone in the sitting-room. Gloss's body was found huddled at the back doorway with the gun lying across him. A loop of string tied to the trigger was evidently the means by which he 4 had discharged the i weapon.