“NO EVIDENCE THAT MARIE WEST STRANGLED HERSELF"-Coroner

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22620, 24 April 1948, Page 6

“NO EVIDENCE THAT MARIE WEST STRANGLED HERSELF"-Coroner

DEAD GIRL MYSTERY

(p.A.) WELLINGTON, April 24. In finding that Marie Emily West, aged 17 J years, died by strangulation on or about July 7 of last year, the deputy-coroner, Mr. R. M. Morgan, said on the evidence before him at the inquest yesterday that he could not hold that the deceased committed suicide by self-strangulation. “There is no evidence as to whether strangulation was selfcaused or otherwise,” he said.

Evidence had been given by two pathologists that inferences to he drawn from the condition in which the body was found and from the strangulation cord and the manner in which it was tied were such that they preferred the assumption of self-strangulation, hut neither would exclude the possibility of homicidal strangulation. Father Gives Evidence Detective-Inspector J. Bruce Young represented the police and Ur. W. E. Leicester watched the interests for the West family. William George West, father of the deceased, said the last time he saw his daughter Marie alive was about 7 40 а. on the morning of July 7. 1947. He did not return home that day until about 9 p.m. and when he rose at 0.30 1h;; next morning his. daughter Elizabeth told him that Marie had not returned home the previous evening. At fh<? time he had no reason tc suppose that anything serious had happened to his daughter. He informed his wife about Marie not coming home. Witness said that deceased had been ill off and on since she had an operation for appendicitis in February that year. He reported Marie’s disappearance to the police on the afternoon of July 8. There was still no trace of Marie when he returned from work at 5 p.m. on July 8 and after again discussing the matter with his family he come to the conclusion, which he subsequently expressed, that they would never see Marie again. Witness said he had no specific reason for saying this. He did not think Marie was the type of girl who would run away with another person. Witness said he had not made any personal inquiries about Marie’s disappearance. He thought she may have been taken away from Hawker street hv somebody in a car she might have known. He' had no specific reason for thinking this. Anonymous Message Atfout “Joe” Witness then gave evidence to the effect that he had identified the body in the Wellington morgue on October б. 1947, as being that of his daughter Marie. He also had identified a watch taken from the body as one that Marie had been wearing the night of her disappearance. Witness said he remembered when the police reported having received an anonymous telephone message that Marie had gone off with “Joe,” described as a member of J Force, but the name Joe was one commonly used by Marie at home when referring to people she knew. Witness said he had never done anything that would cause Marie to wish to leave home. Her condition never suggested that she had suicidal tendencies. To Mr. Leicester, witness said that from the rear of his home where it abutted on the town belt to the place where the body was found—about 60yds —there was dense scrub and no one would normally ,go through it. He had always rejected any theory that Marie might have gone off with someone. He was satisfied that Marie had no special friend by the name of Joe. Jean Frances West, sister of the deceased, said in evidence that she had never heard her sister mention being friendly with a boy named Joe and had no idea what the message could have referred to. Witness described an incident which she stated occurred about eight months before Marie disappeared. She said her father had struck Marie with his hand as a result of some cheek, and as a consequence Marie had a black eye. Witness said the incident was a most unusual one. No Attachment 'Whatsoever As far as she knew Marie was Derfectly happy and had formed no attachment whatsoever. Terence John West, aged 19, a brother of the deceased, said he went to Japan in June, 1946, and arrived home on July 6, 1947. On July 7 he left home about 10 p.m., returning at 1 a.m. the next morning. His mother told him in the morning that she was worried as Marie had not come home. Dr. J. O. Mercer, pathologist at the Wellington Public Hospital, described a post-mortem examination on October 6. He said a doubled and twisted length of string was found round the deceased’s neck. The string was knotted towards the front. It was a complicated knot, a double granny knot, which did not slip even when a heavy iv-pight was hung by it for a long time.

The circular loop of the string was three inches in diameter, too small to go round the neck of a person of the dead girl’s build while she was alive without causing strangulation. The loose ends were 41 inches and three I inches in length. One appeared to have been cut. Death Three Months Previously After giving detailed medical evidence, witness outlined the following conclusions: Death had occurred about three months before the body was found The body had lain undisturbed where it was found all that time. The bedv was found in a position which would not have been voluntarily taken up—it had been placed there. The cause of death was strangulation by a string. The double granny knot would have been difficult to tie. Tbe deceased could herself have done it as easily as anyone else. In his opinion the findings were more reasonably explained by self-strangulation. The short ends indicated interference with the string after death. There were no broken bones. Tc Mr Leicester, witness said that in forming the opinion of self-strangu-lation in the absence of neck tissues, he was drawing inferences more from the manner in which the string was iicd and from the string itself. He could not entirely exclude that the string could have been placed there by someone else. . • His opinion that the string was cut was formed at the time he did the postmortem examination and had bepn fortified by tests carried out by the Dominion Laboratories. Charles William Brandt, scientist on the stall of the Dominion Laboratories, said he had examined the strangulation string and had carried out tests on similar string. It was improbable that the noose had carried the full weight of the body. To Mr. Young, witness said he was satisfied that tension bad been applied on the even ends aftee the knot had been tied. The ends of the twine bore the appearance of having been cut alter strangulation. "I Might Not Come Back” Dorothy Helen Warr said she had known the deceased since November, 1946. As they walked along Hawker street on one occasion the deceased said to her: “One day I will walk down this street and I might not come back and mum will be sorry.” There was no conversation leading up to Marie’s remark It would have been made one night about the end of February. 1947. Witness said she gathered that Marie had had some words with her mother, adding that girls of 16 and their mothers did not always see eye to eye. Arron William O’Brien, railway workshops employee, said the deceased had told him in June that “she was not getting a fair pop at home” and she was thinking of leaving. To Mr. Leicester, witness said the complaint seemed to be that she thought they were getting her to do more than others of the family did. Dr. P. P. Lynch, patholgist, said he examined "the cord and other post-mortem exhibits and evidence and favoured the theory of selfstrangulation put forward by Dr. Mercer. Self-stragulation was often the result of a gesture savouring of exhibitionism. In some cases unconsciousness so quickly supervened that the sham became a reality. To Mr Leicester, witness said selfstrangulation in this case was purely an inference based not only on medical but other considerations. There was the factor that there was substantial evidence of the absence of a sexual assault. Cannot Be Ruled Out On the material available, witness said he did not feel that homicidal strangulation could be ruled out, out he preferred the other view. Evidence of the police investigations was given by several officers. Mr. Leicester called two relatives, who testified to the happy conditions and relations in the West home. Addressing the coroner, Mr. Leicester said he hoped the coroner would have the greatest hesitation before he considered visiting the unfortunate West family with an additional burden, that of finding that their daughter committed suicide. The only evidence that might support this lay in the evidence of the two doctors and Brandt. Neither doctor excluded the possibility of homicidal strangulation. “With respect, the verdict should be open,” he said "Any suicide finding would carry the implication that her parents were so unnatural as to stand by through all the hue and cry knowing where the body was.”