TERRIBLE DISCOVERY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 4, 5 July 1927, Page 10

TERRIBLE DISCOVERY

WHOLE FAMILY DEAD

MURDER AND' SUICIDE

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day. In a small bungalow at Mount Albert last night the police found the bodies of a father, mother, daughter, and son, all of whom had been shot through the' head with a rifle. They &ad been dead eight or ten days. The iour dead are—Ernest Whitby Kiddell,- aged 58, a retired English Customs clerk; his wife Louisa Kiddell, aged c S . LauTa Kii [ eP| aged 2V;-and Collen lliddell, their son, ag(>d t 25. The fi rst suspicion of ' something amiss was caused when.'an electric light was seen burning day and night in the house for some t f .. n days. Neighbours informed the police, who obtained a key, and this evening they entered the house and made the dreadful discovery In the sitting-room they found the body of Laura Kiflclell upon a settee rf ? + f S the^ ,She had been "hot through the back (k S. the head at close

In the principal b-sdroom they encountered a dreadful sight. In a double bed were the bodies of a man and a woman. •

The body of tho other man, clad in a shirt only, lay on the floor by the bed il 1 Thp'^fl^^V6^"llß rifle beside' it. The rifle ,had four live cartridges in its magazine W an empty shell in the chamber. Another empty shell was found in the sitting-room. • From documofnts found in the house the pohco leaJned that Mi< Kiddell sen., with his wife and daughter, left England on 3th May last as saloon passengers in the Kemuera, which reached Auckland on 11th June and that subsequently Mr. Kiddell, and possibly the others, went to Hawera. The son had already been in New Zealand for some time, and was upon a farm at Mangaw»k.ii, in the Southern Main Trunk district. On loth June they rented the 'house in West street, Mount Albert, Having, in on Saturday, 18th June.

The las.t date on which any of them were seera by tho neighbours was the following Monday. The father and son were therfi noticed together. Tho frtipposition that Mr. and Mrs Kiddell -were people in comfortable circumstaaices is supported by the meagre knowledge possessed of them by those with whom they came in contact at Mount Albert. Confirmation of this view :ui found in the fact that tho new arrivals made the trip from England as saloon passengers on the Eemuera. •Mir.. Thomas Jobey, a dairyman, in Hich.y.rdson road, who had supplied milk to the household for several weeks regarded Mrs. and Miss Kiddell, the only members of the family he met, as well educated people in happy circumstances. At no time had he observed anything indicating domestic discord. The accormts were paid promptly and he was a?ru-ays greeted cheerily on his visits. Tho father was formerly a Customs fjlork in England, and had retired on a small pension. The son had been in Jfcw Zealand for five years and was farming for some time at Hawera. His friends there state that he had not been m very good health, although he had always been of n. bright disposition until recently, when ho bought a farm at Mangawcka. It was then that a marked change in him was noticed. He was engaged to be married next year.