Licensee and Wife Found Shot

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 71, 25 March 1935, Page 6

Licensee and Wife Found Shot

V/hen a porter at the Royal Oak Hotel, Wellington. ■attemptedlto call the licensee, Janes Alfred Duncan, at 6 o'clock on Sunday morning he could not get a reply and called the police. He later entered the licensee's bedroom by the window and found.Duncan arid his wife, Violet Duncan, dead of gunshot wounds with' a revolver lying ,beside them. It was subsequently ascertained that soundsbelieved to be shots were ■ heard by constables on duty at James Smith's corner about 3.30 that morning, and it is consequently considered that the tragedy occurred at that time. It appears that Mr.Duncan was in the habit of. ' talcing the keys-to the bars and cellars to his roo:h, and the porter called him to get the keys. When he could not<get a response he became suspicious and called thepolico. After the arrival of the. police officers he-entered the room by the window as the door was locked from the inside, and discovered both Mr. & Mrs^ Duncan, lying dead with-a revolver beside them. After a doctor had been called the bodies were removed to the morgue, where they.were viewed by the coroner. An inquest will be held. When the constables heard what they believed to be shots in the early morning they searched the vicinity/butifound everything normal.. . Apparently the shots were not heard by those sleeping in the hotel. ; l(Sr.-Duncan was born at Palmers ton South about 55 years'ago. . He had experience of hotel management in the. South Island and Australia before coming to Wellington about eighteen months'ago. Mrs.. Duncan also came from Palmerston South. They leave one son, Mr* Leonard Duncan, of Launceston, Tasmania,., and one "* daughter, who resided with her. parents.-