HER SPORTS CAR

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 22

HER SPORTS CAR

Smashed After Woman’s Funeral

In life, the pride of a wealthy young woman, a sports car that held the secret of her death in a mountain stream near JJanrwst, Denbighshire, Wales, carried her body to the grave recently. Then the car was smashed to pieces with sledge-hammers. While the inquest was being held on the woman, Miss Eileen Mary Salmond of Bettws-y-Coed, daughter of a retired Ceylon tea-planter, workmen were fitting to the car a wooden platform on which the coffin was to be carried. I was then draped in black crepe an covered with spring flowers. “No one must ever drive the car aftei the funeral,” her father stated. After the inquest, at which an open verdict was returned, the coflin was placed on the car, and, in the gathering darkness, driven to Capel Garmon Church, where the interment took place. Miss Salmond had driven away from her home just a week previously. Eight lieurs later the car was found abandoned near a wild mountain gorge. Her clothing was found caught in the rocks along the bed of the river that races down the gorge. A green jumper, a mackintosh, a pullover, and a silken undergarment were discovered. Four days later her scantily-clad body was found eight miles away in the River Conway. After swearing in the jury. Mr. G. V. Humphrey, the coroner, asked them to disabuse their minds of all they had heard and read about Miss Salmond having been drowned. "The post-mor-tem examination has just been held," lie stated, “and my information is that death was due to a fracture of the neck. There is no evidence of drowning.” Mr. Theodore David Erie Salmond gave evidence that his sister was in good health, and had no financial or other worries, and was perfectly happy a t home, Inspector Louis Jones,, of

Llanrwst, who recovered the body, stated that it was upright, with the head down in the water, as if the neck had been broken. The right hand, he added, was gripping a wire fence, which ran across the river, and there was a pronounced wound in the skull. Coroner: Was the hand actually gripping the fence, or had it merely become entangled?—We had to release it. The inspector also stated that when Miss Salmond’s car was found the engine was switched off and the petrol tank was empty. Coroner: Were there any bloodstains on the river bank? —No; but if there had been the rain would have washed them away. Inspector Jones added that there was no evidence of foul play. At the bottom of the precipice leading to the river there were marks of someone having “slithered” down. Dr. T. C. Oliver, of Old Colwyn, who made the post-mortem examination, slated that the cause of death was shock due to fracture and dislocation of the neck. There was also a large gaping wound on the forehead. These injuries were consistent with Miss Salmond having fallen from a precipice and struck something which pushed the head back and broke her neck. Death he added, must have taken place before she entered the water. Coroner: Could the injury have been caused by foul play?—Dr. Oliver: I do not think so. In liis summing-up the coroner referred to the evidence as being meagre. “All we know,” he stated, “is that Miss Salmond crossed a fence that led from the roadway to a precipice overlooking the river. There was a path which she could have gone down in safety.” As slated, the jury returned au open verdict, the foreman stating that there was no evidence to show* how Miss Salmond had received her injuries;