MURDER AND SUICIDE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 169, 13 April 1935, Page 22

MURDER AND SUICIDE

Tragedy at Royal Oak Hotel CORONER’S FINDING The finding in connection with the recent tragedy at the Royal Oak Hotel, Wellington, delivered by the Coroner, Mr. E. Gilbertson, J.P., yesterday, was that Violet Duncan was killed by the late James Alfred Duncan by a revolver shot in the head while she was asieep in the hotel, on March 24,1935, and that James Alfred Duncan took his life by shooting himself in the head with a revolver on the same date and at the same place. The coroner made the following statement :— “The inquiry into the death ©f James Alfred Duncan and his wife, Violet Duncan, discloses that the marital relations of the deceased had recently become strained. Arrangements for a separation had been discussed and proceedings were to have been commenced on Monday, March 25. “Witnesses state that Mr. and Mrs. Duncan retired to their bedroom apparently in a normal state of mind about midnight on Sautrday, March 23, Nothing further is known about their movements until about 8.45 a.m. on Sunday, March 24, when two shots at short intervals were heard by persons in the street, but not by anyone in the hotel building itself. “At 6.30 a.m. on the same morning the hotel porter failed to arouse Mr. Duncan by knocking at his bedroom door, and then sent for the police. Access to the bedroom was then gained by the house porter through a winow. “The bodies of the deceased were discovered lying peacefully in separate twin beds, the bedclothes undisturbed and no signs of any struggle. “The deceased, Violet Duncan, was lying on her side in a relaxed attitude as if asleep and with a bullet wound in the forehead, while James Duncan was on his back in bed with a small revolver in his right hand and a bullet wound in his forehead. “The conclusion I arrive at is that James Duncan had risen from his bed in the night, shot his wife in her sleep, then returned to his own bed and there shot himself. His finger prints alone were on the revolver. “A bullet of the calibre of the revolver was found in the head of each of the deceased, and two discharged shells in the chamber of the revolver corresponding with the size of the bullets. The remaining three cartridges were not discharged.”