SHOT IN HER SLEEP

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12528, 13 April 1935, Page 3

SHOT IN HER SLEEP

then husband committed SUICIDE. CORONER’S FINDING IN ROYAL OAK CASE. (Press Association). WELLINGTON, April 12. The coroner, Mr E. Gilbertson, delivered Ixis finding at the inquest on the Royal Oak Hotel tragedy as follows : '‘Violet Duncan was killed by James Alfred Duncan by a revolver shot in the head while she was asleep in the Royal Oak Hotel, Wei - lington, on March 24. James Alfred Duncan took his life by shooting himself in the head with a revolver oil March 24 at the Royal Oak Hotel. “The inquiry discloses that the marital relations of the deceased had recently become strained,” said the coroner. “Arrangements for a separation had been discussed, and proceedings were to ho commenced °n Monday, March 25. Witnesses stale that the Duncans retired to a bedroom in a normal state of mind, nt about midnight on March 23. Nothing further is known of their movements until about 3.45 a.m. on Sunday, March 24, when two shots, at. short intervals, were hoard by persons in the street, hut not by anyone in tho hotel building itself. “At 6.30 o’clock tlic. same morning, a hotel porter failed to arouse Duncan by knocking at his bedroom door, and then sent for tlie police. Access to the bedroom was then gained through a window by a porter, and the bodies of tho deceased were dissovered lying peacefully in separate twin beds, with the bedclothes ■undisturbed and no signs of any struggle.” After mentioning that Duncan had a revolver in liis right hand, the coroner sai,d the conclusion he came to was that Duncan liaij risne, shot his wife in her sleep, and then returned to liis own bod and shot himself.