POISON RUBBED INTO MEAT

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 28 July 1932, Page 4

POISON RUBBED INTO MEAT

■EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY. MAN AND (SISTER ESCAPE DEATH. (3y Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, July 27. (Strychnine rubbed into meat from which the family was to make a meal nearly caused the death of a man and his sister, Charles Topp and Mary Topp, residing on a small isolated farm at Hawarden. They were violently ill after eating some of the meat hut fortunately the bitter taste revealed something, was amiss and they ate very little and soon recovered. !- , The meat was cut from a forequarter of beef kept in the dairy. The family had had meals from the beef four days previously and the meat was all right. After they had eaten the beef on .the last occasion the remainder of the meal was thrown out. Four dogs ate it and all died. The unused portion of the beef in the dairy was analysed and was found to be impregnated with strychnine.

■Since this occurred on July 10. the police have been investigating but apparently have been unable to discover the perpetrator of the crime. From available evidence it seems some person must have gone to the farm on the night of July &, entered the unlocked dairy, which is some distance from the house, and rubbed powdered strychnine into the meat hanging there. There "was no strychnine on the farm so accidental contamination' seems impossible. Charles Topp, when interviwed to-day, said there seemed little doubt some person who had a grudge against them had rubbed the poison into the meat, but he had no idea who his enemy was.