“I DON’T KNOW”

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 177, 14 April 1923, Page 8

“I DON’T KNOW”

BUSINESS MAN’S DYING WORDS

SUICIDE AT DAY’S BAY

Overcome by financial worries, a local business man, Charles Silas Sydney Kelly, addressed a pathetic letter to his wife and sought relief by cutting his throat with a razor at Day’s Bay on Wednesday night. When asked his reason by the constable who found him in a semi-conscious condition, he uttered in an almost inaudible whisper, “I don’t know.”

At the inquest, conducted yesterday by the Coroner (Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M.), evidence was given by Dr. Phyllis Mather that when she examined the deceased she found that his throat had been cut, apparently by a sharp instrument. Death was due to haemorrhage. . The widow of the deceased said that they had resided at 51 Fairview Terrace, Kelburn. At 9 a.m. on Wednesday deceased left home with some books and papers to attend a meeting about some financial questions in connection with his business. It had been arranged that she should meet him at their Day’s Bay home in the evening, but when she arrived there she discoveied her husband lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Deceased was a member of the firm of Cooper, Kelly and Co., soft goods manufacturers, of Fletchers’ Buildings. In a letter addressed to witness he had expressed his intention of taking his life. , - , x, • Melville Earl Heenkms, brother-in-law of the deceased, said that although he did not know much about the deceased’s financial affairs, he was aware that he was in a bad way. The Coroner remarked that deceased had apparently been bo worried by financial affairs as to become temporarily depressed. The verdict was that he had died from the effects of a wound in the throat, self-inflicted, while in that state.