WEEKEND TRAGEDIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 146, 18 December 1933, Page 7

WEEKEND TRAGEDIES

HUSBAND AND WIFE DEAD,

DISCOVERY AT FARM

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) GISBOKNE, December 17. The small soldiers' settlement of Wliarekaka, four miles from Tolaga Bay, which is 36 miles north of Gisborne, was the scene of a terrible tragedy in the early hours of this morning when a woman was found dead with a fractured skull and later her husband's body was discovered in a milking shed with a bullet wound in the head. • „ The deceased - were Annie Amelia Martin, aged 32 or 33 years, and her husband, Henry Martin, better known as jKelly Martin, about 53 years of age. Both were well-known residents of the district. Early this morning Constable Canning, Tolaga Bay, telephoned Inspector O'Halloran, Gisborne, that a woman had been found dead in the garden at her home, apparently murdered, and that her huband was missing. The woman's body was covered with a sack and an oilskin. Suspecting that the man had taken to the bush, a party comprising* Inspector O'Halloran, - Senior-Sergeant Wade, Plain-clothes Constable King, and also Mr. E. L. Walton, Coroner, left'Gisborne at about 7 a.m. On arrival at Tolaga Bay they were met by Constable Canning, who reported that he had found the husband's body in the milking-shed about 150 yards from the house. There was evidence that Martin had taken a gun to the shed, tied a strap to the trigger, placed the muzzle in his mouth, and then pulled the strap down with his'foot. The woman had been struck with a blunt instrument while she was in a bedroom,, her skull being fractured. The body had then been carried out into the garden and placed in the position where it was found. Mr. Walton opened an inquest, and after evidence of identification the proceedings were adjourned till Friday. The couple had led an unhappy life, and the woman had "left home pending proceedings for a separation order-, but she returned homo before the action was heard. The woman was at a picture show at Tolaga Bay on Saturday night, and when she returned it is understood a violent quarrel ensued. From what can be gathered it appears that the. woman was struck by an iron.hpjt and the body'ta. en through the house in the presence of some of the children into the garden, where it was found. ■ There is left a family of five, the eldest aged, twelve years.