STRANGE SUICIDE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 24, 28 January 1910, Page 6

STRANGE SUICIDE.

SYDXEY, January 21. Further strange features regarding the suicide, of Alfred Holdsworbh Dale, 27, auditor, who was found hanging in a peculiar way at his mother's residence, •'Stanington," Rose-street, Chatswood, on Sunday 'last, \v«re brought before the Coroner nt the inquest yesterday. The mother ot the deceased said he was employed by Messrs. Starkey and Starkey, and for some time past he 'had suffered from brain fag, following an examination in connection with his profession. At Christinas he was compelled to relinquish work for five days on account of ill-health. •'Hβ was "always a lively, happy boy," proceeded the witness, "and on Sunday last he ate a hearty dinner. I went out in the afternoon, leaving the deceased at home with the maid. At 6 o'clock I returned and found his door locked. I looked in a side window and saw my boy, naked, hanging from the roof by a window cord. A plank had been fixed across from a etepladder on to a box, and the cord was twisted around his neck, his legs, and round his body, and then up his backHe was hanging with his feet and head almost touching the floor. Underneath him was a large mirror taken from the chest of drawers, while at his side his shaving mirror had been placed." Dr. Sheldon said that he was sure the deceased's mind was deranged when he had Hanged himsolf in such a peculiar way. The fact of his tying the cord round his body as he had done would bring on insensibility before he died from strangulation. A man who would do euah a thing as Dale hud done must have been temporarily insane.

A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was recorded.