POINT CHEVALIER TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 19776, 28 January 1928, Page 6

POINT CHEVALIER TRAGEDY

THE INQUEST OPENED [Per United Frees Association.] AUCKLAND, January 27. Tli© theory advanced as to why Peter William Closs shot his wife at Point Chevalier and then committed suicide is that he feared that he might lose his eyesight, as his eyes had boon troubling him. The inquest was opened this morning. Evidence of identification was given in both cases by Constable Spellman, ol Point Chevalier, who had known the deceased for the past eighteen months. The inquiry was then adjourned sine die. It is believed that. Closs was of (formal! extraction, but his military discharge, which was found by the poiioe after a thorough search of the house yesterday afternoon, showed that he was born in London, and had been discharged from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in October, 1917. as unfit for active service on account of wounds received in action. His service amounted to one year and 244 days. Closs married soon after his return to civil life. He won tho Auckland provincial middle-weight championship in 1914, and retained the title up till the time when'he enlisted. .Seven or eight years ago he appeared in a number of welter-weight bouts after recovering from a wrist wound.