BABY ASPHYXIATED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22512, 16 December 1947, Page 8

BABY ASPHYXIATED

FOUND DEAD IN CRIB WHATATUTU TRAGEDY A child four months old, Mary Shane Goodall, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. G. Goodall was suffocated in her crib at the parent’s home, Waipaoa station, Whatatutu, on Saturday morning. An inquest was held before the coroner, Mr. E. L. Walton, in Gisborne yesterday and after evidence was heard, a verdict of death from asphyxia was returned in accordance with the finding of the post mortem examination. Sergeant R. Griffith conducted the inquest on behalf of the police. Douglas Guelle Goodall identified the child and said he had last sefen her alive at about 7.45 a.m., on Saturday. Shortly after 10 a.m. he was called to the house and found the child dead. He carried on artificial respiration for at least an hour and a half but this was unsuccessful. His wife, Nancy Jean Goodall, said she placed the child in a crib in the bedroom about 8.30 a.m. The child was then asleep. When she went to it at 10 a.m. she found it had turned in its sleep and was lying face downwards in the crib which had a soft mattress and pillow. The child was then dead. A visitor to the house, William Alfred Green ,also assisted in the unsuccessful attempts made immediately the child was found dead, to revive it by artificial respiration.

Constable T. J. Walker, Te Karaka, brought the body to Gisborne where a post mortem ‘examination was performed by Dr. S. B. L. Bowker, in whose opinion death was due to asphyxia.