DROWNING OF BOY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21922, 17 January 1946, Page 4

DROWNING OF BOY

TAKAPUNA TRAGEDY “MISGUIDED WOMAN” CORONER BLAMES MOTHER (P A > AUCKLAND, Jan. 17. •Tam quite convinced by the evidence and letters produced that this misguided woman decided to end her own life and that of her son, said the city coroner, Mr. A. Addison, when he concluded the inquest into the death of Graham Coleston Rosser, aged three whose body was found in the grounds of the Takapuna Grammar School early on the morning of October 26. The deceased’s mother, Mrs. Gwenyth Elaine Rosser, aged 25, Matai road, Greenlane, had been missing since the previous afternoon, when she was believed to have been with +’- 3 boy on the beach at Takapuna. P’ usband was serving in Italy at t! ume of the A schoolboy, John Norris, said Ihut after he had delivered a copy of a newspaper to the caretaker of the Takapuna Grammar School he was walking along the path through the grounds toward St. Leonard’s road when he saw the body of the boy. It was lying on its back in the grass at the side of the path and was fully clothed. Dr. Paris, Takapuna, said he examined the body. In his opinion death had been due to drowning, which had occurred about eight to 10 hours before. Woman’s Body Seen in Sea

Evidence was given by SeniorDetective Anlin that he went to Takapuna on October 26. Lying in the grass where the boy’s body had been was a lady’s shopping bag containing money, bus and ferry tickets, a ration book' in Mrs. Rosser's name, and a docket issued by a Queen street firm recording. the sale of a life jacket. “Later that dav advice was received that the body of a woman had been seen floating in the sea near the red buoy off Narrow Neck,” continued Detective Aplin. “I summoned a police launch and a thorough search of that area was carried out. but no trace of the body could bo found.” The search had been continued practically every day for a week, without result, and all shipping had been notified to keep a look-out. The witness produced copies of letters written on October 24 in affectionate terms to her husband and her parents in which the mother intimated her intention to end her own life and ihat of her son. She said she had had a bad bout of influenza and was physically tired. A verdict that the cause of Graham Rosser’s death was drowning, brought about by acts of his mother, was returned by the coroner.