STATION TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 153, 26 December 1936, Page 13

STATION TRAGEDY

DEMENTED*.- HUSBAND

ENDING THE FAMILY

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, December 15.

John William Woods, 40, grazier, of Woodrow Park, Mittagong, about 60 miles from Sydney, murdered his three little children, battered- his wife's head with an axe, and then committed suicide by cutting his (throat with" a razor. Mrs. Woods is not expected to' live. Woods had had a nervous breakdown, and friends said he had not slept for five weeks. '■'

The children were girls aged 7 years and 5 years, and a boy aged 11 months. The wife, Mrs. Kathleen Mary Woods,' 36, was found in bed, and the baby was dead in his cot. The younger girl wnsVlying in bed as if she 'had" been' attacked while asleep. The elder was partially dressed and was apparently struck down on- the floor of her bedroom. ' A blood-stained axe was lying on the floor of the girls' bedroom. ...

The tragedy, was discovered by Thelma May.Mpen, who was employed as a domestib in the Woods' home. ..In an interview, she said she heard Woods moving about .shortly before 7 a.m., while, she was'still in bed. .He .seemed to be hurrying through the house. Soon afterwards she. heard one , of the. children-cry 'out but ,did,n6t attach much importance, to/the incident. Later she ■ heard groans -from:, the bathroom and saw Woods's -.body lying on ■ the floor. , Knowing her employer had been ill .for ■ some-time she went to Mrs. Woods's room to call her. She saw Mrs. Woods in bed, also covered with, blood. -She asked: "What is the matter?" and Mrs. Woods replied faintly, "Nothing." The baby was in his cot. ■ She looked at him, and saw that he was dead: Hearing moans from the children's room, she then went in there;' and found the elder girl lying on "her back, half dressed. The other was lying on her face. Both children had received dreadful head injuries." The elder girl was then alive, but died soon after she was admitted to hospital. .

Mr. Woods was wealthy,' generous, and extremely popular. He and his wife had always been regarded in the district as an ideally married cV.ple, devoted, to each other and to their children. Police fourui nothing which would suggest even the mildest domestic differences, but they established that Mr. Woods had been suffering from insomnia for nearly three months. • The family had been preparing for summer holidays, and partly packed trunks were found in the house.