LEAP TO DEATH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 40, 26 November 1938, Page 5

LEAP TO DEATH

DUNEDIN WOMAN’S END.

SENSATIONAL SYDNEY EVENT.

DUE TO LEAVE BY THE AIWATEA

(United Press Association —Copyright.) (Received This Day, 9.5 am) SYDNEY, This Day.

A sensational plunge to instant death from‘the fourth storey of a window of the Hotel Australia, occurred last evening during the height of the city shopping crush, the victim being a Dunedin woman, Miss Muriel Hare, aged about 50. The body landed on the Castlereagh Street tram track with a terrific thud. A girl employed in the Prince Edward Theatre directly opposite was apparently the only actual eyewitness. She uttered a piercing scream when she saw' the woman hurtling through the air from a height of 120 feet. A strange feature was that the body overshot the Hotel Australia verandah leading the impression that Miss Hare leapt well forward with the deliberate intention of missing it and going to her death. She received shocking injuries, particularly to the head. An enormous crowd gathered and traffic was at a standstill while an ambulance moved the body and the fire brigade eliminated traces of the tragic affair.

The police ascertained that Miss Hare was due to sail by the Awatea at 5 o’clock to-night. She arrived at the hotel. She hurried upstairs and 15 minutes before the sailing hour she leapt to her death without acquainting anybody of her intentions. A taxicab was actually waiting to transfer her to the, Awatea when the body crashed on to the tram track.

Miss Hare booked in at the Hotel Australia on November 4, and has since absented herself for brief periods in order to go into hospital and visit Canberra, but no motive for her rash deed to-day was discoverable, beyond a strong suggestion that her health was not good. Speaking on the radiophone from the Awatea, Captain Davey said that the men had been searching the ship for Miss Hare, whose ticket and luggage were on board. He‘added that when Miss Hare; came to Sydney on the Awatea on November 4 she was most cheer-

ful.

A WELL-KNOWN MASSEUSE. / * FINE WORK DURING EPIDEMIC. DUNEDIN, This Day. Before she entered the profession of a masseuse Miss Hare was a school teacher, widely known throughout Otago. During the infantile paralysis epidemic she did a vast amount of voluntary work among the children and in this and other ways earned the admiration of the citizens. She received her training at the Otago School of Massage and was recognised as one of the leading masseuses in Dunedin. Her mother and two sisters reside in this city.