THE HERMITAGE TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 21093, 4 May 1932, Page 9

THE HERMITAGE TRAGEDY

CHARGE OF MURDER FURTHER REMAND GRANTED [Pm Uhxtbd Pass* Association.] TIMARU, May 4. 4.t the Magistrate’s Court, before Mr C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., William John Thomas Whalley, who was arrested at Hokitika, appeared on a charge of having, at the Hermitage on November 5, 1931, murdered William Edward Wogan. On the application of the police, a further remand was granted to May 25. [The inquest into the circumstances of Wogan’s death concluded on March 1 last. Wogan, a barman-porter at the was found dead in his room on the night of November 5 with a gunshot wound in the head. The coroner, Mr €). R. Orr Walker, returned the following verdict:—“ That William Edward Wogan died on November 5, 1931, at the Hermitage, Mount Cook, from laceration of the brain substance and hsemorrhago, the result of a wound from a bullet fired from a .22 rifle. The facts so far proved in my opinion definitely exclude the conclusion that deceased committed suicide. They also are, in my opinion, inconsistent with a definite conclusion that the deceased accidentally shot himself. The matter is now one for the police to take such further action as they might be advised, and the inquest may be legally reopened if the occasion warrants this course.”]