AWFUL DISCOVERY.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2125, 17 May 1922, Page 5

AWFUL DISCOVERY.

FAMILY FOUND DEAD. MOTHER DROWNS HERSELF AND CHILDREN. AN AUCKLAND TRAGEDY. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Last Night. James Arthur Thornton, residing in Garden Road, Epsom, on returning from his work in the city about 10 o'clock last night, found his wife and four children —a boy seven years of age. a girl of four years, a boy of two years, and an infant of six months—drowned in a bath.

When Thornton returned from the city last evening at about 10 o'clock, he found the doors of his pretty little suburban home, 11 Garden Road, Epsom, barred, and was unable to effect an entrance. When he left his wife earlier in the day she appeared in her usual good spiifits, and had expressed no intention of going out. Becoming alarmed, he forced the front door open, and on searching the house found his wife Beatrice dead in the bath, with her youngest child, Eileen Frances, aged six months, clasped in her arms. No sign could be found of the other children, but after making another hurried search of the house, he communicated with the Epsom police station, and Constable Wales assisted in another search of the premises. In a bedroom the other three children were found, each wrapped naked in a sheet and placed on the double bed with the bed-clothes carefully arranged over them. Nearest the wall lay James, beside him was Mary, while on the outside lay their youngest sister, Evelyne. The unfortunate mother had apparently carried the children and placed them on the bed, after drowning them in the small bathroom. Dr. Reid, who had also been summoned, pronounced life to be extinct. The bath was a small tin one, and could not hav e contained more than two feet of water.

A few blood stains on the floor at the head of the bath are the only indication of the struggle that must have taken place when the mother placed the children there. There is no evidence that Mrs Thornton had intended bathing the children, as the soap had not been used. The bath was devoid of water, but this is accounted for by one of tho final convulsive movements of the woman's foot striking the chain and pulling out the plug. The bodies, which were all found without clothing of any description, bore no marks whatsoever. A 'search by the policy failed to disclose the presence of any poison. in the house. Everything was in order, and there was nothing to indicate there had been a struggle or disturbance of any kind. When the husband left home, the wife gave no indication of suicidal intention, and appeared quite normal. It is understood she had apparently been in satisfactory health, although it is believed she suffered severely at times prior to her last confinement six months ago. The neighbours regarded her as a quiet and industrious housewife, whose conduct gave no indication that she was otherwise than perfectly normal in her actions. Mr and Mrs Thornton are believed to have formerly resided in Wellington,'but they had been living in Epsom for the past three and a half 'years. There is no evidence of any reason for the tragedy.