MURDER AND SUICIDE

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 120, 21 May 1920, Page 8

MURDER AND SUICIDE

DOUBLE TRAGEDY AT OTAKI

FATHER AND DAUGHTER. DEAD,

■ Otaki was the scene of a double tragedy last night, when a man named Thomas M'Fall and-his daughter Olvve ■were found dead in their home—the daughter stabbed in two places and the father with his throat cut. - ,

; M'Fall was a widower-with four daughters, of whom Olive- -wa«'the..second.. The eldest daughter, Mxs. Wylie, was staying in the house at.thg time, with her two children. It-appears that the father about 9 o'clock;;quarrelled with the daughter Olive, and a heated argument took place, it is -. reported, overa letter which he demanded and she refused ;to surrender. : Then a- loud cry was heard from the girl: "Oh, father, you have stabbed me!" and immediately •afterwards the noise of a heavy fall. ■ The married daughter hurried to the-scene, ■ and. found both her'father; and'-sister-orr'th'e-point of death. When shortly -afterwards the local police officer, Constable Satherley, came on the scene, he found- both -father and daughter dead,'the daughter lying at the entrance to her bedroom and the father at the door of his. A butcher's knife a-nd a razor appear to have been the instruments of the double tragedy.

'The .deceased Thomas M'Fallwas an old and highly-respected resident. of the Otalti district,, and; of recent .years, ca-me to. live 1 in the town, being employed as a. plumber. He leaves a family of seven, ■with one married daughter. An.inquest is to be held at Otaki to-morrow.