DID SHE FALL?

Grey River Argus, 6 December 1938, Page 7

DID SHE FALL?

INQUEST ON N.Z. WOMAN Hotel Australia Tragedy [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] (Received December 5, 10.20 p.m.) SYDNEY, December 5. A Coroner inquired into the circumstances attending the death of Miss Muriel Hare, aged thirty-five, at Dunedin, on November 26, when she fell from the top. storey of the Hotel! Australia into Castlereagh Street. i The medical evidence revealed that] Miss Hare, was suffering from a “de--prdssive neurosis,” but that she gave no indication of suicidal tendencies. A New Zealander, Mrs Adeline Ber-| kett, a sister of the deceased, said, m evidence, that Miss Hare had an elec-| tro-medical institution in Dunedin. She must have been making between £l,OOO and £1,500 a year, and “was| blessed with everything that she could want.” There was, therefore, nd reason for suicide. The Coroner, in recording an open finding, said that he was unable to ascertain, from the evidence, whether it was a case of accident or of suicide. There was a strong suggestion that Miss Hare took her own life. Yet there seemed to be no reason for such an act.

The Coroner added: “I find it difficult to understand how a person could fall accidentally from the roof of the Hotel Australia, which is protected by a parapet, save for one small gap, where a handbag was found, and not one-person saw her leap to the roadway.”