HER SPORTS CAR

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4873, 21 July 1936, Page 8

HER SPORTS CAR

SMASHED AFTER FUNERAL. In life, the pride of a wealthy young woman, a sports car that held the secret of her death in a mountain stream near Llanrwst, Denbighshire, Wales, carried her body to the grave recently. Then the car was smashed to pieces with sledge-hammers. While the inquest was being held on the woman, Miss Eileen Mary {Salmon, of Bettwys-y-Coed, daughter of a retired Ceylon tea planter, workmen were fitting to the car a wooden platform on which the coffin was to be carried. It was then draped in black crepe and covered with spring flowers. “No one must ever drive the car after the funeral,” her father stated. After the inquest, at which an open verdict was returned, the coffin was placed on the car, and, in the gathering darkness, driven to Capel Garmon Church, where the interment took place. Miss Salmond had driven away from her home just a week previously. Eight hours later the car was found abandoned near a wild mountain gorge. Her clothing was found caught in the rocks along the bed of the river that races down the gorge. A green jumper, a mackintosh, a pullover and a silken undergarment were discovered. Four days later her scantily-clad body was found

eight miles away in the River Conway.

After swearing in the jury, Mr. G. V. Humphrey, the coroner, asked them to disabuse their minds of all they had heard and read about Miss Salmond having been drowned. “The post-mortem examination has just been held,” he stated, “and my information is that death was due to a fracture of the neck. There is no evidence of drowning.” The jury returned an open verdict, the foreman stating that there was no evidence to show how Miss Salmond had received her injuries.