DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 63, 26 December 1935, Page 4

DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

MAN AND WOMAN DIE AD. WOMAN SHOT IN BACK OF HEAD. (Per Press Association). HAMILTON, December 25. A sensational tragedy occurred at Ngaruawahia on Tuesday afternoon, when a man shot a woman dead and then turned the weapon on himself, inflicting injuries which later caused his death. Creeping into the sitting-room where Mrs Allen Cliippengale, aged 47, was sitting on a settee, Walter George Edward Wheeler, aged 48, shot the woman in the back of the head and afterwards turned the gun on himself, inflicting a severo wound in the right temple. The gun was a 12 bore double barrelled shot-gun. The pair conducted a boarding-house in Herstell Street, Ngaruawahia, and the only one at home at the time of the tragedy, shortly after 2.15, was a young woman, Mrs Hill, employed as a domestic at the house. Mrs Hill was in the rear of the house and, hearing two shots in quick succession, she rushed into the room and discovered two bodies on the floor. She immediately notified the police. Wheeler, who at one time was an employee at the Horotiu Freezing Works, had been off work for several months because of an injury received at tlic works. He had lived in Ngaruawahia for many years. Mrs Chippendale had lived in Ngaruawahia for about 18 months. She had an adult son staying at the house, but he was not at home at the time. There was very little to account for the tragedy.