ARSENIC IN BODY

Evening Star, Issue 20728, 26 February 1931, Page 9

ARSENIC IN BODY

THE CORNISH MYSTERY MRS HEARN BEFORE COURT Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, February 25. Mrs Annie Hearn was charged in the Police Court at Launceston, Cornwall, with murdering her sister, Miss Mary Everard, aged lifty-two, and her friend, Mrs Alice Thomas. Mr Devlin, who prosecuted, said that Dr Lynch, a Homo Office expert, expressed the opinion that Miss Everafd was slowly poisoned during seven months before death, when Mrs Hearn was nursing and feeding her. Mr Devlin pointed out that Mrs Hearn and Miss Everard in 1925 went to live at Lewannick, near Mrs Thomas’s farm Mr Thomas frequently _ visited _ them, and took them out drives. His wife. Mrs Hearn’s friend, had not visited them often, but she did not object to their friendship. Mrs Hearn in 1926 bought a tin of weedkiller containing 4,000 grains of arsenic. Mr Devlin read extracts from Miss Everard’s diary, beginning in January, 1930, and detailing her sufferings until she died in July. There were repeated references to symptoms, which, Mr Devlin said, suggested repeated doses of arsenic. Referring to tho date May 8, Mr Devlin said Miss Everard became suddenly ill that night, and Mrs Hearn called in a neighbour. Miss Everard said to her that the medicine was overstrong. “ It’s poison,” she added. “1 have had a full dose. 1 can feel it creeping over me, and my hands and feet are numbed.” Previously she had only had part doses. Mrs Hearn said it was emergency medicine to relievo extreme suffering, but doctors would give evidence that they would not have given such medicine. A post-mortem examination revealed .77 grains of arsenic in tho body, and it was also present in the hair, the nails, and the skin, showing that it had been administered over a long period. A post-mortem examina tion revealed in Mrs Thomas’s body .85 grains of arsenic Mrs Hearn subsequently disappeared and went to Torquay seeking a situation and wearing spectacles, which she had not before worn. Mr Devlin said that Mrs Thomas attended a picnic along with Mrs Hearn and Mr Thomas. She was offered sandwiches, and took the top one, as would ninety-nine persons out of 100, after which she became ill, but recovered. Subsequently Mrs Hearn cooked a meal of mutton for Mrs Thomas, who afterwards died. The court was adjourned.

[A message received on November 25 stated :—Sensational evidence at the inquest deepened the double mystery and intensified the keen public interest in connection with the disappearance of Mrs Annie Hearn following the death of her friend, Mrs Alice Thomas, a Cornish farmer’s wife, in whose organs an analvsis disclosed n fatal quantity of arsenic. Mrs Hearn described herself as tho widow of a Sheffield doctor, but a doctor with an identical name who was alleged to bo her husband denied that she was bis wife. )