UNUSUAL CASE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 201, 9 August 1927, Page 7

UNUSUAL CASE.

CORONEB DISBELIEVES WOMAN’S STORY. Wellington, Aug. 8. “I do not believe that the deceased requested this letter to be written, and I think it is only a wicked concoction on the part of her mother,' said the coroner (Mr. E. Page, S.M.) to-day, at an inquest into the death of Marjorie Alice Pickering (aged 19), who died in the Wellington Public Hospital on June 22, Alfred E. A. Pickering said that bis wife became ill a few days before she died. A doctor was sent lor and the deceased was ordered into hospital. She died on the day of admission. Witness had never known his wife to take pills and he did not know she had been taking them until the day he sent for a doctor. Dr. A. Roberts gave evidence that the pills would not. poison a person unless an overdose was taken or they were taken too frequently. In his opinion the deceased died from poisoning as a result of taking pills. ' Corroborative evidence was given by Dr. P. P Lynch, pathologist at the Wellington Hospital, who .conducted a post mortem examination on the deceased. The mother of the deceased, Annie McGregor, said her daughter had told her she had taken the pills. Detective-Sergeant Holmes, who conducted the enquiry on behalf of the police, produced a letter which, he stated, was supposed to have' been written by the dead girl. “Do you know anything about this?” the detective asked of Mrs. McGregor. “Yes,” said “My daughter requested me to write it by her bedside when she was ill.” Mr. Page: Why -did you write that letter purporting' to come from the deceased ? Witness: She asked me to write it 1 . Is that true?—Yes, sir. Will you swear that your daughter got you to write that letter, saying you were to have her baby and all her belongings?—l will. Why did you tell Detective Murray chat your daughter wrote it?—l was upset and worried at the time. The coroner found that the deceased had died from poisoning as the result of too many pills. At the time of taking them, however, she had no idea of taking her own life and her death was accidental. “Now,” said Mr. Page. “I think I should say something with regard to the letter, said to have been written by the mother at the daughter’s request. The mother, it appears, wanted to have the child, and nine days after her daughter was dead She took the letter to Dr. Roberts. In the witness box she swore that the letter had been written by her for the deceased at her daughter's bedside on June '9th. The whole of the circumstances convince me that the daughter knew nothing about that letter and it was written by the mother with a view to getting the child and her daughter’s belongings. 1 believe the young couple had a happy lile together and that this letter was written by Mrs. McGregor after her daughter had been buried.”