DOUBLE TRAGEDY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 91, 27 January 1928, Page 6

DOUBLE TRAGEDY

MURDER AND SUICIDE. TICK AUCKLAND SENSATION. 'Per Press Association.) .' AUCKLAND, January 26. The discovery of the tragedy at Point Chevalier, where a labourer named Peter Gloss and his wife were found shot, was made at 11.40 this morning by Mrs Edith Croad, of No. 6 Raymond Road, who had called at the house in order to leave a novel for Mrs Gloss, who had been ill on Wednesday and wanted something to read. The blinds on the front windows were drawn, but on going round to the back Airs Croad noticed that the door was open, /and was about to enter when she was appalled by the sight of the body of Gloss, huddled just inside the door, one foot pressing against _ the lower panels. It was a horrible sight. Mrs Croad was naturally upset, and ran back to her home, meeting a young man on the way and requesting him to inform the police. The next persons on the scene were Constable Luke Spellman, Dr. Lamb and Detective-Sergeant Issell. The constable and doctor examined the bodies and afterwards made a search of the house for a note, but none was to Re found. In the bedroom Dr. Lamb discovered a letter from Mrs Grace O’Hara who is a daughter of Mrs ■Class bv her first husband, Air Barnett. The letter conveyed nothing of importance, merely enclosing a couple’ of messages for Airs Gloss to redirect. Airs Class had no children bv her second husband, who was some years her junior.

CLASS'S MANNER PECULIAR. STOREKEEPER’S IMPRESSION. „ ' AUCKLAND, January 26. ’ The scene of the tragedy at Point Chevalier is a modern bungalow, comfortably, though not expensively, furnished." The couple appeared to be in fair circumstances, and tradespeople say that they always paid their way. Clean,, but untidy, the interior of the house presented the appearance of having been left unswept for at least a couple of days' A gramophone was open in the sitting-room, and there were records lying about. Alusic littered the top of a piano. There was a pile of loose silver and coppers on the kitchen table, amounting to 8s Bd. Alongside it. stood two undischarged 12-bore cartridges of the same tyoe as that which had been fired.. Also on the table was a flask containing a small quantity of brandy. A clean, empty jug, evidently prepared for the milkman, stood near a small jug. of sour milk or cream. Tradesmen were evidently unaware of the awful tragedy that had been enacted, for, while inquiries were being made by the police, a small boy, bearing a basketful of bread, came to the b.ack door. Needless to sav, he was not permitted to look inside, and he left his loaf on the step, departing in blissful ignorance of anything of a sinister nature. i In the corner of the sitting-room there was an enlarged photograph of A class, abviously taken a few years agbj showing Gloss in boxing kit. Deceased was an amateur boxer of some .repute, having won the Auckland amateur welter-weight chamnionship soon after the war. On the wall was a framed photograph showing him in the uniform of a private of the 'l3th Reinforcements, N.Z.E.F. It is under-

vijifcood; that Mrs Gloss was musical, this f theory being strengthened by the Q gramophone and oiano, whilst one of the pictures was of St. .Cecilia, the patron saint of music. If there was evidence of tragedy on

one 'side of the sitting-room, still more terrible was the scene in the bedroom. The appearance of the bed and its dead pcupant is better left undescfibed. An Examination of the bedroom bv Dr. • Xjanib disclosed that the wardrobe of ©loss';was scanty. Some of Mrs Gloss’s clothes were lying about and there was ahpair of woman’s slides, almost new |fjnd of fashionable shape, standing on the floor near the window. A red curtain partly covered the window, making the dimness of the death chamber -a pathetic contrast to the glorious summer sunshine outside. Gloss was last seen alive yesterday

afternoon. He called at the grocery store of Mrs Walker, at the corner of Te Ba Road and Point Chevalier Road, . and obtained a bottle of bovril. His manner was peculiar. Only the previous day he had called at the store to pay the family grocery bill, and on that occasion also he had made a similar purchase. ,“I thought he seemed very quiet yesterday,” said Mrs Walker. “He walked in with a vacant look about him, simply said, ‘Give me a bottle -of bovril,' took it and walked out again.” “Tilings have seemed strange at the house during the last fortnight, because >. orders for groceries were left on notes stuck in the door,” said Alec Walker, son of Mrs Walker. “Usually Mrs Closs would come to the door with her order _ written on a pad. During the last two weeks I did not see her. Even when Mr Closs was in the house the order would he left written on a scrap of paper and stuck in the door of a little safe near the back door. Some time ago Closs used to tell me of his experiences as a boxer, but he has not chatted at all during the last few weeks.” It is a remarkable feature of the tragedy that, although Raymond Road is a particularly quiet thoroughfare, with hardly any wheeled traffic, no sounds of disturbance or reports of a gun were heard. Even the neighbours next door heard nothing. Mrs Florence Boag, who lives at No. 14, only a few yards distant from the house where the tragedy occurred, knew nothing whatever about the affair until the “Star’s” representative called upon her in the course of his inquiries.