SECRET UNREVEALED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 282, 28 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

SECRET UNREVEALED.

POLICE-VISIT DRAMA. SUICIDE OF DEAD WOMAN'S FRIEND. The police believe that when Walter Applegate, a hairdresser, of Church Road, Hove, shot himself he took with him to the grave the secret of the fate of his friend, Miss Emily Laura Shinn. Miss Shinn, who was 37, and a Brighton hairdresser's assistant, formerly in _ Applegate's employ, fell dead while walking with him at Patcham, near Brighton, a week previously. According to Applegate, her last words were, "Oh, Wally, I feel ill." Her death was at first thought to be due to natural causes, but a post mortem examination revealed that she had been poisoned with a poison believed to have been taken in the form of tablets. Applegate shot himself in dramatic circumstances. Chief Inspector Bowden, of Hove, had called to question him about an alleged theft of £100 from a cash box on the premises. The inspector had just left, and Det.-Inspector Wells and Det.Sergeant Scales, of Brighton, were at the door, making further inquiries about Miss Shinn's death, when a shot was heard. "Taken Two Tablets." They rushed upstairs, burst open the bathroom door and found Applegate on the floor with a bullet wound in his head and a revolver by his side._ He was rushed to hospital and detectives sat by his side in the hope that he might make a statement, but he died three hours later without regaining consciousness. Inspector Wells had called to question Applegate about a statement made by a man and woman who allege that they saw Miss Shinn fall dead at Patcham Park. The woman told the police that she rushed forward and heard Applegate exclaim: "She has taken two tablets." Applegate made no reference to tablets when questioned by the police and said he was at a loss to understand the cause of Miss Shinn's death. The police consider that Miss Shinn and Applegate had agreed on a death pact, but that Applegate's courage failed after Miss Shinn had swallowed the poison tablets. '