BEXHAVEN TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 129, 2 June 1944, Page 5

BEXHAVEN TRAGEDY

STORY TOLD AT INQUESTS

p.A GISBORNE, June I. The story of the tragedy at Bex-, haven Station on May 18 in which., Mrs. Lois Rosemurid 'Mill lost her life was told at the inquest before Mr. E. L. Walton today. The evidence of the principal witness, a Maori youth working on the property, showed that Taia Matu, aged 15, demanded shotgun cartridges from Mrs. Mill, enforcing his demand by taking her by the throat. When he was told where the cartridges could be found he partly. strangled Mrs. Mill and battered ■ her head, leaving her hidden under the bed in the spare room. The assault took place outside the house and Mrs. Mill was apparently still alive when she was dragged, inside. George Mill, husband of the murdered wdman, said that Matu had come to him from the Child Welfare Department two months previously, and in consequence of an incident on April 16 when Matu and his workmate had ■ taken horses without permission he asked the Child Welfare officer to visit the station. Witness knew no reason wfiy Matu should hold a grudge against his wife. The coroner found that Mrs. Mill died from shock following on concussion and loss of blood from head injuries received on May 18. A verdict of death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound was returned at the 5 inquest into the death of Taia Matu. The superintendent of the Child Welfare Department, Mr. J. R. McClune, in a statement relative to the employment of wards of the department, said that Mr. Mill was a firstclass employer for such boys and had . been successful with others entrusted to him. Matu was a persistent. absconder but had not previously shown •• - any tendency to violence.