DOCTOR’S DEATH

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29384, 10 December 1960, Page 13

DOCTOR’S DEATH

Sydney Inquest Adjourned

(Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, December 9.

A friend of Dr. Eric Hedberg’s late wife was questioned at an inquest today on an alleged association between Dr. Hedberg and Mrs Diana Yeates. The friend said Mrs Hedberg saw Mrs Yeates and told her that she preferred Mrs Yeates not to see Dr. Hedberg alone. The city Coroner, Mr C. S. Rodgers, S.M., is holding an inquest on Dr. James Macßae Yeates, aged 51, who was a wellknown Macquarie street surgeon. Dr. Yeates was found dead in the garage of his home in Vaucluse, about 5 a.m., on September 15.

The police have told the coroner that they questioned Mrs Yeates about allegations she might have had a love affair with Dr. Hedberg, who is 50. Today, evidence was given by Mrs Frena Humphries about conversations she said she had with Mrs Joyce Hedberg about Dr. Hedberg and Mrs Yeates. Mrs Humphries said that Mrs Hedberg, who died in April this year, told her she was worried about the friendship. Many times while Mrs Humphries was giving evidence, counsel for Mrs Yeates and Dr. Hedberg objected to her continuing, but the Coroner over-ruled the objections. Another witness, Mrs Hedberg’s sister, Mrs Patricia Wilson, said they had conversations about Dr. Hedberg while Mrs Hedberg was in hospital in 1958. “My sister told me she was worried about her husband and her home circumstances, because Dr. Hedberg was having an affair with Mrs Yeates, and it had been going on for some time,” said JVlrs Wilson. Mrs Humphries said Mrs Hedberg. a former nurse, was married in 1947. She had four children and the marriage seemed quite happy until 1957. In that year, Mrs Hedberg had an operation for cancer.

After the operation, and deepray treatment, Dr and Mrs Hedberg and Dr. and Mrs Yeates went for a holiday to Jindabyne Some time after the holiday, Mrs Hedberg showed her a letter and appeared “very unhappy about it,” said Mrs Humphries. Mrs Hedberg had told her: ‘ “I found a letter for Diana written by Eric.” The document, Mrs Humphries said, appeared to be “a poetic statement.”

The inquest was adjourned to January 17.