SHOCKING MURDER AND SUICIDE.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7262, 23 January 1889, Page 2

SHOCKING MURDER AND SUICIDE.

i Great excitement was created in Ashburton shortly after eleven o'clock on January 18th by a report that a. horrible murder had been committed at one of the Village Settlements at Chertsey, about twelve miles from here. Immediately on the receipt of the' news I drove out to Chertsey and soon gleaned that a terrible tragedy had been committed in full view of a Police Constable, four railway platelayers and a widowed woman. The perpetrator of the murder is a man named Francis Fahey, a man about thirty-five years of age, and a native of Ireland. His wife Mary was about thirty-four years old, and both were well known in Christchurch, Fahey having at one time been night watchman for the Bank of New Zealand while Mrs. Fahey had held a situation as cook at Mr Loughnan's. There are three children, boys, aged respectively nine years, four years, and eighteen months. About eighteen months ago Fahey and his wife and family went to reside on Village Settlement No. 16, about a mile north of the Chertsey railway station. The wife was an industrious woman, fond of her home and children, but the husband was given to drink, and, being of a Violent temper, had frequently ill-used his wife. Yesterday morning he complained of the children crying and struck the baby. Subsequent to this Mrs Fahey went to Rakaia and complained to the police of her husband's conduct towards her. Fahey, in the meantime, had gone to Ashburton and lodged a complaint with Sergeant Felton that, his wife had left him. Fahey, who was known to be a man who could command a ready flow of tears at will, was crying. He spoke affectionately of his wife, and said she was a good woman in every way, and he could not live without her. He had, however, ia the morning taken the Bible from a shelf in his own house and made a remark that either himself or his wife should die before sun-. set. . He had also told his wife that for her sake he had given up drinking, but would, if she wished it, do away with himself. Fahey, after leaving Sergeant Felton, went to several carriers, told them that his wife had left him, and wanted his furniture removed, but each of the carriers learning it was a case of family trouble, refused to go and do the removiug, whereupon Fahey remarked, "You will never see mc under the sun again." He subsequently made enquiries at Mr Robert Alcorn s shop about the purchase of a revolver, and afterwards bought one—a bulldog revolver —at Mr John Orr's, and left Ashburton for Chertsey by the evening train. His wife came up from Rakaia, bat being afraid of her husband slept at the bouse of a neighbor, Mrs Thompson, a widow, previously telling the Bakaia constable that she would stay there till he came up in the morning to make enquiries about the conduct of her husband. Shortly before. 10 o'clock this morning Fahey went to Mrs Thompson's and enquired for his wife, but, Mrs Thompson refused to to tell him where she was. Fahey became excited, and' forced himself into the house, and after searching Mrs Thompson's bedroom, looking in, the wardrobe and under the bed, went into the kitchen, and found his wife hidden under the sofa. Mrs Thompson then tried to pacify him, and advised him to. go home with his wife and live peaceably. Mrs Fahey became frightened, and made for the door, where she was caught round the neck by Fahey, who held her under his arm, a struggle taking place outside the door. Whue this was going on, Constable Black, who had come up from the Rakaia by the express train, had got within six or seven chains of the house, when he heard a woman screaming, and heard three shots fired. At the second shot he saw the woman fall, and when she was on the ground Fahey took deliberate aim and fired a third shot into hi 9 wife's body. The constable shouted with a view of attracting the 'murderer's attention and ran with all haste to the scene of the fearful tragedy. Fahey came hurriedly away off the section on to the road, and at first appeared as though he intended to make for a plantation on the opposite side. The constable was getting close upon him when the man put the revolver to his head and fired a shot, which grazed his head, and went out through his hat into the air. Fahey put his hand up to tile side of his head for an instant, and then fired another shot, and fell just as the constable reached him. He appeared to be dead, and the constable went a distance of a chain and half towards the house where he bad seen the straggle, and where the woman feD. She was quite dead The constable then went back to Fahey, and seeing he was still alive, went three or four chains down the railway Use to where four surfacemen were at work and. got them to assist him to remove husband and wife to the Chertsey HotoL The whole proceedings had been witnessed by the surfacemen, but, most remarkable to ■JBtate, not one of them atteaspted

to move towards the scene of the fatal straggle, or to render any assistance whatever till approached and asked by the constable, Mrs Thompson saw the first two shots fired, and naturally becoming very frightened for her own safaty, turned and fled, and thought she was being fired upon, when she heard the third shot. Dr. Tweed and Sergt. Felton arrived at Chertsey from Ashburton at 11.35 a.m., and just as they entered the room Fahey expired Dr. Tweed found that the woman had received three bullet wounds, one bullet having entered under the chin, and travelling outside the jawbone, went out just below the left ear. Another bullet had entered a little in front of the right ear, and penetrated deeply into the brain. The third had penetrated the ribs below the heart, and either of the two latter were sufficient to cause death. The first shot Fahey fired at himself had evidently singed his hair, while the next entered above the right ear and penetrated a depth of nearly four inches to the brain, but in spite of this be lived for nearly an hour and a half. There was a pool of blood outside the cottage where the woman fell, and another in the road, where Fahey himself fell.