FATHER SHOT DEAD

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 223, 17 June 1936, Page 12

FATHER SHOT DEAD

Allegedly by 15-year-old

Daughter

REPORTS OF ATTACK ON WIFE Farm Tragedy in Nelson District By Telegraph—Press Association. Nelson, June 16. Joseph Caldwell, aged 4(1, of Kiwi, met his death this morning just before 9 o'clock under tragic circumstances, being shot with a .303 rifle, allegedly fired by his 15-year-old daughter. Caldwell, who was a well-known resident of the Tadinor district, was a returned soldier, having served with the A.I.F. He suffered from the effects of gas while at the war, and as times suffered lapses of depression, it being alleged by residents of the district that he frequently became rather violent.

This morning, it is alleged, he was attacking his wife when his daughter became alarmed. Putting a cartridge in a .303 rifle, she fired it off, it Is thought, to frighten her father, but the bullet entered Caldwell’s neck, killing him instantaneously.

Mr. Winter, who was staying at Kiwi with Mr. R. Ricketts, the nearest neighbour to the Caldwells, heard the shot and a scream and went across the paddocks to investigate. Deceased’s daughter ran down to the railway line, which runs just behind Caldwell’s lionise, and informed some linesmen who were passing on a trolly that she had shot her father.

The police at Nelson were informed. Inspector F. Lewin, accompanied by Sergeant W. H. Simister and Constable Houston, of Wakefield, proceeding to Kiwi to make investigations. Kiwi is about 45 miles from Nelson.