INQUEST HELD AT HOKITIKA

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28981, 24 August 1959, Page 12

INQUEST HELD AT HOKITIKA

Woman’s Body Not Recovered

(From Out Own Heporter) HOKITIKA, August 23. An inquest held under Section 8 of the Coroners Act, 1951, by direction of the Attorney-General, where the body has not been recovered, was conducted in the Hokitika Police Station before the district coroner (Mr R. Paterson • The verdict returned by Mr Paterson in the inquest into the death of Olive Irene Wieblitz, housewife, of Hokitika, was that the deceased died at Hokitika on July 6, 1958, presumably drowned in the sea. Dr. D. H. McLean, who gave evidence on the medical history of the deceased, said that she could not have travelled very far in her physical condition and would have died from exposure. Raome Merle Stewart, matron of the maternity hospital, said she last saw Mrs Wieblitz on July 5, about 9.40 p.m. About 4 a.m. she was awakened by the night nurse and told that Mrs Wieblitz was missing from her room. Mrs Stewart made a search of the hospital and grounds and then notified Dr. McLean. Details of the search, in which 200 residents and police participated, were given by Constable A. C. Gillman. “From the evidence before me there can be no doubt that death has occurred, but in the absence of any body there is no direct evidence as to how the deceased came to her death,** said the Coroner. “The extensive search made failed to bring to light any body and I can only presume that the deceased walked into the sea and was drowned, the body not being recovered. “To support this there is one who said that he and his wife were awakened in the early hours of July 6 by their dog barking and someone presumably going down the right-of-way which borders their house towards the