LETTER LEFT BY GIRL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 116, 11 February 1944, Page 3

LETTER LEFT BY GIRL

Decapitated Body On Railway Line

EVIDENCE OF SUICIDE

"I can’t stand it any longer. . .” said NoeJine Margaret Pb ill ips, aged 16, in a letter to her parents-before, she tyas. found decapitated early on the morning . of January 7, on the railway line between I’etone railway station and the 1 etone crossing. The letter was produced at the inquest into her death held at 1 etoire yesterday and the coroner, Mr. n. u. Mellish, in his verdict found that her death was caused by decapitation when she voluntarily placed her bead on the railway line in front- of the tram. Clarence Smith, driver of the tram which left Waterloo at 12.1 a.m. on January 7, said he remembered hearing a sound of some obstruction on the line when he passed.over the point where the body was found. He did not see anything on the line. Later in the morning, a woman’s shoe was found wedged inthe front of this.engine. It was identified as belonging to the dead girl. Ihe driver of the train which Passed oyer (be Hue after the Wellingtou-M aterloo train, said his engine did uot run over the body. Dr. P. P. Lynch, who examined the body said that the injuries inflicted were consistent with those received when run over by a tram. He said that there was nothing to indicate that she bad been assaulted before her death, and the nature of the injuries suggested that she bad deliberately placed herself across the lines. Jean Gladys Phillips, mother of the girl, sai> that she was very attached to her parents. About. September last year she became engaged to a marine, but her parents would not let her get married till she was 21. When the marine was invalided home to the United States she became friendly with another marine and went out with him frequently with the approval of the parents. On January 5, they went out and did not return till well after midnight. The parents became worried as the girl was usually home early. They questioned her and she said one of -her companion’s friends had become involved in a fight and they had taken him to receive attention. On January 6,. when Mrs. Phillips returned home from work her I daughter was not there. A neighbour gave her a letter from the girl which had been left with her that afternoon and in it she strongly expressed her intention of doing something desperate. The words in the beginning of this note were identical with those in an unfinished one which MrsPhillips found crumpled under her daughter’s pillow. Inquiries were made and the police in Wellington were informed. Mr. Phillips waited up for her till 2 a.m. and at 5 a.m. he was informed of her death.

Mr. Phillips said he was the girl’s adopted father, and he and his wife never questioned her chastity. She did not drink. or smoke and was of a cheerful disposition. ■ She was well supplied with money and got on very well with her parents.

Gwendolen O’Leary said that at 3.30 p.m. on January 6, the girl gave her a note-with ' instructions for it not to be given to her parents before S o’clock that night. She appeared quite normal. Another United 'States marine said that he had met the girl for the first time on a tram in Wellington at about 11 p.m. on January 6. He went to the railway station with her, and they boarded a train, and she got off at Petone. When he askWl for a “date” she replied that she would not be able to keep it. She left him without saying goodnight, and he returned to his camp, which he reached before midnight. Kenneth Edward Wood, guarding vital points at Petone. said he saw the girl loitering in the vicinity of the point where the tragedy occurred at about 12.7 a.m.; .-,

The first marine, who has since returned overseas, denied in a written statement that he was with the girl on' the night of January 6. He stated that the story about the fight on the previous night had been made up by the girl because she was frightened about, being late home. He had supported her excuse. He said that the last time he had seen NoeJine was at 1 a.m. on January 6. when they were late home .because they had spent quite a long time on the beach.

The coroner, in summing up, said that the evidence had dispelled the wild and uninformed statements which had circulated, and the letter showed that she had determinedly planned to take her own life. ' Mr. H. Jowett thanked the police on behalf of the parents for the manner in which they had investigated the case.