THE FARM TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8538, 11 April 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FARM TRAGEDY.

Thk intense excitement produced in the district of Newbury a few weeks since by' the shocking tragedy that occurred at Warren Farm, Wash Common, on the southern outskirts of the town, in which Mrs. John Chamberlain, wife of a cattle dealer, and also her brother, Mr. Sidney George Heath, a farmer, diving close by, were fatally shot, was renewed when the bodies of Mrs. Chamberlain and Mr. Heath, which were interred in the parish churchyard at Exbourue on January 20, were exhumed, this step Being taken under the authority of an order issued by the Home Secretary. It will be remembered that according to the evidence given by Mr. Chamberlain at the inquest out Jan. 16 he and the two deceased were in his sitting-room at Warren Farm on the evening of Jan. 15, when a conversation took place about his (Mr. Chamberlain's) will. Mrs. Chamberlain and her brother were co-executors, and the document was produced and read over, and they both expressed themselves satisfied. Soon afterwards Mr.fflLeiifch, ah the request of his sister, sat down "bo the piano, and while ho was still at the instrument the woman requested her husband to leave the room, as she wished to speak to her brother privately. This he did, bub almost immediately heard the report of gun, and on rushing back into the sittingroom saw his wife standing with his double-barrelled gun in her hand, and Heath leaning over the piano with a portion of his head blown off. Mr. Chamberlain stated that he at once tried to wrest the weapon from his wife, bub in the struggle for its possession the second barrel exploded, and Mrs. Chamberlain fell dead, having been shot through the back. A remarkable feature of the case was the finding of an unsigned note addressed to the mother of the two deceased to the following effect:— " You have made our lives a misery to us all. This action I have done as a means of release from it. I can no longer keep from doing it. Hoping you will forgive me, yours no longer I remain." In his evidence Mr. Chamberlain said the handwriting was that of his wife, and a verdict was returned to the effect that the woman shot her brother while suffering from temporary mental derangement, and that she was accidentally shot by the same weapon. A strong public feeling, however, arose in the neighbourhood that the inquiry was nob exhaustive, representations were made to the Home Secretary, and the exhumation was ordered. The police under Colonel Blandy, chief constable of the county, whose movements were conducted with great secrecy, erected a tenb in a meadow adjoining the churchyard, and the public were rigidly excluded. The bodies, which were in the same grave, having been laid out by two women within the tent, were examined by Dr. Bond, representing the Home Office, assisted by Dr. Jenner Clarke, of Newbury, and his assistant, Mr. Wilson. The examination of the body of Mrs. Chamberlain disclosed a gunshot wound on the left aide of her back, and the nature and direction of the wound formed the subject of most careful examination, at the conclusion of which the bodies were again placed in the coffins and -buried in the grave. Dr. Bond then returned to town, ' -"/■' '