MURDER CHARGE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1939, Page 7

MURDER CHARGE

CLAVERLY MYSTERY SEQUEL

(P«c Press Association.—Copyrignt;.

CHRISTCHURCH, Sept 5.

The seventeen year old son of Mrs Patience and accused, Arthur Stevens Patience, said that until October 4, 1938, his father and mother lived together at Claverley camp. Since October 17, 1938, his father had been wo. king at Rosy Morn camp. Prior to going to Claverley, his father had been a shepherd at Mendip Hills station. He 1 last saw his mother towards the end of September, 1938, when be visited Claverley for a day. He sa f his father on the Friday after his n.other was reported to be missing. Patience told him he did not know where his mother was, and was going to see if she was with his niece, Mrs George Patience. He said Mrs Patience had left a note and taken a little bag and gone away. He had said about £49 which he had kept above the window was missing. He thought Mrs Patience had taken it. He saw his father again two days later when he told him his mother was not with Mrs George at Christchurch. He seemed very upset over his wife’s disappearance. He,saw his father again on October 15 when Patience told him he still had heard . nothing of Mrs Patience, and that he was going to see a lawyer.-He did not mention that any police inquiries were being made. He said he was packing up to go to Rosy Morn camp later. His father said a note had been left on the table, in which Mrs Patience said she was sick of camp life. In his opinion, the body shown him by the police, was the body c.f his mother.

Witness added he reported his mother’s disappearance to the police. Irene Maud George, a married woman, said Mrs Patience was her aunt. For . a start Patience and Mrs Patience got oh well, but from June or July, iy3s, things wore not so good between them, the cause of the trouble being another woman, Mrs Chapman. On October 15 her husband gave her a. note which the accused left. The text of the note was: “Dear Rene. Did Girly come down here last Thursday? She left a note saying she was sick of the camp life, so I don’t know where she went to, so please let me knew if. she she been here. 1 brought some of her clothes, down. "Write a letter and' let lbe know.” Later Patience said he- was going to report his wife’s disappearance to theip.olice, but someone-told him his wife was only giving him a fright. Patience also told them that his wife had taken away "ole tlibs' and £4O.

Arthur John Patience was charged in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday with the murder of his wife, Harriet Jane Patience.

1 Patience is a labourer, aged 48. He arid his wife lived together at the public works camp at Claverly, on the main trunk railway, until early in Octohei last year, when she disappeared. Continuing her evidence Mrs Irene George, a niece of Mrs Patience, sai<l ‘that on October 21, Patience came into ' her kitchen. She asked him if he had brought Mrs Patience with him, bin he had not. He denied that there had been any quarrel, and said that his wife was quite all right the night sin disappeared. He went out, and she said she was going to hear an election address. When he came back she was gone. Patience said that his wife had taken £4O and all her good clothes. At this stage, Mrs George broke ;down, and was 'escorted out of the. k Court. The Court adjourned for five minutes.

On resuming, Mrs George said that she was able to identify a body in the in organ at the Christchurch Public Hos. pital on July 22 as the body of her aunt. She described features of her aunt and of the dead woman, wind) she said corresponded. Mary Ann South™, a widow, of Piccarton, said that Harriet Jane Patience was her daughter. She was 59 when she disappeared. A body at the morgue in Christchurch in July of this year was that of her daughter. Her daughter had had artificial teeth for many years. Mrs South™ said that when -she walked into the morgue she saw there the face of her daughter as plainly as ii she was alive. Dr R. L. Withers, of Kaikoura, said he examined the body of a woman on the beach at Taratuhi soon after it was found on July 20. The right loot -,nd half the log, the left foot and most of the tissue from the face were ‘ gone. Most of the scalp was also gone. He considered that the 'body had been just recently exposed. There was no sign {of decomposition. Tn that country if it had boon exposed it would have been attacked by hawks or gulls or vermin' within a few hours. ]) P A. B. Pearson, pathologist 'at the Christchurch Public Hospital, gave evidence .of a post-mortem. He said that death appeared to have occurred some months before Ins examination, which began on duly 22. Parts of the body wore well preserved. 'lll*' appea lance of it was consistent with its having been buried in clay for some months, then been in the sea for some Lime, and then dried out on the beach. There was a bruise in the pit of the Sfomach, and the ribs bore signs of violence during life. Three in the front and six at the hack, were bro’-en. The damage to the front ribs would he caused bv heavy crushing. These injuries would not be fatal, but they had most probably occurred before death—eertainlv not long after. It was very unlikely that thrv could have been caused by rocks on the beach. There was a bruise on tV left side I the neck, but it was not deep-seated. I The windpipe showed an indentation, j which ran down the rifrht side and j towards the front. This injury to the

windpipe could have been, caused by pressure of a finger or a thumb. if the woman was injured in this way by someone using a hand to cio it, her head would iiave had to in tnrov.n back 'the indentation of tin windpipe would not have been causei by any enlargement of the gland o, disease.

I'uere was no definite indication o the cause of death. The injuries to tiie ribs could have been produced by pres-

sure of a knee on the chest.

Mr Donnelly: Would it have been possible to place a knee on the woman’s chest, one hand on her throat, and the other hand over her mouth? Dr Pearson: Yes. Could such a combination produce death? —Yes.

Dr Pearson said that if .breathingwas stopped in this way signs ot it would have disappeared by the time he made his examination.

The body showed signs of having been wrapped in something. I here were signs of some sacking. Imprints were clearest on the arms and thighs. There were also some ligature marks on the arms and thighs and back of the shoulder. He would inter that the body had been wrapped in Sacking material and bound up, the buried. There was an indication also that the woman had been wearing a woollen singlet. There was no indication of sudden death from internal causes.

It appeared that some such article as broad tape or flax had been used to bind the arms and shoulders.

The brain was completely disintegrated, and cerebral trouble was possible, hut in eases of-cerebral trouble it was usual to find degeneration of the blood vessels, and there was no sign of that in this bndv.

The indications were against suicidal death —the body could not have wrapped itself up as it apnarently had been. Drowning could not be excluded as a possibility, hut taking everything into consideration it could not have been suicidal drowning.

Professor W. P. Gowland, Professor of Anatomy at the Otago Medical School, said he had examined the body and considered it that of a person of middle-age. There had been no teeth in the jaws for 10, 15 or more years. The indentation of the windpipe could not have been a congenital abnormality. Mr Donnelly • In your' opinion could that injury to the windpipe have been produced by the use of a hand? Professor Gowland: Well there must have been some pressure, and there was most likely pressure of air inside, too. .

He agreed with Dr Pearson that- the injuries to the ribs were just the sort of injuries produced by crushing. They

could have been produced by a man kneeling on the chest. Dr P. P. Lynch, consulting pathologist to the Wellington Hospital, gave corroborative evidence. The indications were that the body had been put in sacking, perhaps a sack, and tnen bound round a number of times with, cords or ligatures of some sort. The j us. Lions Oi the ligature marks on the. arms were such that they could have been caused if the body had been bound with the arms at the sides. The fact that there was an imprint made by the sacking on the skin indicated that the covering of the sacking must have been pressed against the skin for a considerable time. The fractures of the ribs could have been caused by pressure of a knee, hut it would require to be very considerable. In considering the injury to the windpipe there must be observed the possiunity of material having pressed heavily noon it, but. the bruise in the side of the neck, and the injury to tho chest did add significance to the possibility of pressure or violence. From the condition of the body he did not think ,

it possible to say what was the cause of death.

At this stage the Court adjourned until 10 a.m. to-day.