A HOUSE OF TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18169, 15 August 1922, Page 7

A HOUSE OF TRAGEDY.

MELBOURNE MYSTERY.

FOUR OF HOUSEHOLD DEAD.

FOUR OTHERS UNCONSCIOUS.

DOCTOR AND HIS FAMILY. By TeleaniDh—Frees Association—Copyright. (Received 3.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. MELBOURNE, Aug. 14. One of the most shocking tragedies in the history of Melbourne, involving four deaths, was discovered at the residence of Dr. Cranstoun at Hampton.

A patient went to consult the doctor. Ht failed to obtain a reply to h*s ring at the 'door bell, and hearing the telephone ringing inside became suspicious that something was wrong. He peered through the letter slit in the door and saw a man lying in the passage. Assistance was obtained and an entry forced. It was then found that the man lying in the passage was tho doctor. He was .•dressed in pyjamas and was unconscious, having apparently emerged from the bathroom and collapsed.

A search of the house resulted in the finding of tho dead bodies of the doctor's three sons, John, aged 15 years, Kobert, aged 10, and Colin, aged eight, and of a young woman named Gladys Baylis. Mrs. Cranstoun and the doctor's two other young children Margaret, aged 13, and Bella, aged six, were found unconscious. The doctor, his wife and the two girls were removed to a hospital. It is expected that they will recover.

At present nothing is known of the circumstances that Jed up to the tragedy, but in all cases it is believed that the victims were subjected to injections of morphia. When found the doctor had a hypodermic syringe lying beside him. The body of his son John was found lying on a hearthrug in the drawing room. Robert and Colin were in separate beds upstairs and Miss Baylis, who had acted as companion to Mrs. Cranstoun, was on a bed downstairs. The two girls and the mother -were also in bed.