CHILD DEAD FROM SHOCK

Evening Star, Issue 22515, 7 December 1936, Page 8

CHILD DEAD FROM SHOCK

MOTHER IN DEMENTED STATE CAN’T GIVE ACCOUNT OF TRAGEDY [Per United Press Association.] TAUMARUNUI, December 7. The death of Zena, the four-year-old daughter of Mr Ernest Prescott, mechanic, occurred under unusual circumstances on Saturday. The mother rushed into a neighbour’s in a demented state with the child in her arms. The father and a doctor were summoned immediately, and the child was found to be dead. No coherent statement could be obtained from the mother. An inquest was opened for identification and adjourned. On Sunday night Dr Gilmour, pathologist, arrived by car and made a post mortem examination. _ He found no signs of drowning, which was «it first suspected, and no signs of suffocation, which was also suspected, and no marks of violence on the body. The child died of shock, the cause of which is not known. AVhen the child was taken by her mother to the neighbour, her head was slightly wet, and it was thought then that she might have been drowned, but the pathologist’s examination disproved that theory. It is suggested that the child received some accidental shock which caused her death, and that the tragic discovery unbalanced tho mother’s mind. She is still unable to give any coherent account of what happened.