SINISTER EVIDENCE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 55, 28 November 1930, Page 11

SINISTER EVIDENCE

Poisoning of Woman OPEN VERDICT RETURNED London, November 26. “I have not the slightest doubt that Mrs. Alice Thomas died from arsenic poisoning and that she had a big dose.” said Dr. Listed, who attended her, when giving evidence at the inquest at Plymouth Guildhall regarding the death of Mrs. Thomas, a Cornish farmer’s wife. “It looked as if the poison had not been administered by chance, so I ordered her removal to hospital,” he said. The coroner, in summing up, said he did not think the evidence showed that arsenic was taken accidentally or suicldaly. Mrs. Thomas was too ill to take a second dose; also there was no reason why she should commit suicide as she was happily married. There was no evidence of a motive for the administration of poison by the husband of Mrs. Annie Hearn, who has disappeared, and who was equally a friend of both the Thomases. Incompatible Willi Guilt. There was no evidence of the husband’s guilty association with Mrs. Hearn, while his actions during his wife’s illness were incompatible with guilt. The husband might have been Indiscreet to have Mrs. Hearn frequently visiting the farm and causing gossip, and also in lending her £3B, but the indiscretions did not suggest any guilt. There was no evidence that Mrs. Hearn was contemplating becoming a second Mrs. Thomas. Although there was a strong assumption that she administered the poison, there was no evidence that she indicated which sandwich Mrs. Thomas should take, or that she poisoned other food. Meaning of Letter. Mrs. Hearn's letter was capable of two constructions —one oi which fear at Percy Parsons’s remark. L is a poisoning case and must b ed up.” but It was strange that lumped to the conelus> f ‘ (j ie iX^‘was f indicate by whom it was administered.