KARAKA FARM TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 13

KARAKA FARM TRAGEDY.

WOMAN AND DATJGHTEES. EVIDENCE AT INQUEST, POISON GIVEN BY MOTHER. NO CLUE AS TO SOURCE. The mystery of how the late Mrs. Mary Minnie" Blackwell, aged 36, of Karaka, obtained the strychnine poison with which she killed herself and her two daughters, Marjory Doreen, aged 14, and Muriel Mercia, aged 11, was unsolved at the inquest yesterday afternoon touching the three deaths. Two verdicts were returned by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., coroner, who found that Mrs. Blackwell committed suicide by taking poison and that she administered it to her daughters while in an insane condition. The tragedy happened on September 6. The family resided on Mr. F. W. Yates' farm at Waiau, Karaka, where the husband was employed as a labourer. Besides the two girls there was a boy, Gordon, whose age was six. While Mr. Black well was away at work his wife administered poison to herself as well as to the children. When he arrived home in the aiternoon all were dead, save the son, who had been sick The farm is 12 miles beyond Papakura. About 12.30 p.m. on the day of the tragedy, the little boy took a note, apparently from the mother to Mrs. Yates. The note ran: "Send for Dr. Page." The doctor arrived about three o'clock and discovered the tragedy. Evidence of Analyst. Mir. K. M. Griffin, Government analyst, said he found that fatal doses of strychnine were held by the stomach content of each victim. In each case he found pyridine, indicating the presence of methylated spirit, and it would appear that strychnine had been administered dissolved in methylated spirit. Various foodstuffs in the house were examined for strychnine, but none was found. "It is a mystery where Mrs. Blackwell got the poison," stated Senior-De-tective Hammond. "Every chemist's shop in Auckland and the suburbs has been visited, and every poison register searched but without result." Talked o! Suicide. Before the tragedy the woman had spoken of committing suicide because she was worried. Giving evidence, Mr. Yates, manager of the farm, said that about 12 months ago Mrs. Blackwell attempted a similar thing. He had strychnine at his place for poisoning rabbits. Mrs. Blackwell often assisted Mrs. Yates in the household duties at the farm. About that time she took a 2oz. bottle of strychnine to her home. Then she took it back to him —or most of it—and told him she had mixed some of it with a dinner she had cooked, but she had come to her senses and thrown the dinner out. No one bad touched the dinner. She had used a little of it—quite enough to poison a thousand people. Statement by Husband. Mrs. Blackwell had appeared genuinely sorry then for what she had done. She made him promise he would not tell her husband. After that he locked all his poison up and had kept it under key ever since. " I have no idea how the tragedy could have happened," said Mr. Blackwell, in evidence. " I cannot imagine how my wife could have got the poison. I kept no poison at the house. The news did not come as a surprise to me when the doctor told me, as my wife had been talking about it for the past three weeks. She had been 1 threatening to do away with herself and the children. She had been in illhealth for the past 12 months."