MURDER AND SUICIDE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21521, 19 June 1933, Page 11

MURDER AND SUICIDE

THE GISBORNE TRAGEDY

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST

WELL-TO-DO COUPLE

[by telegraph—own correspondent] GISBORNE, Saturday

Such details as were available to the police relative to the domestic tragedy which was discovered in a cottage in W hitaker Street on Wednesday were disclosed in evidence at the adjourned inquest into the deaths of Mrs. Lucy Wilson and Joseph William Wilson, her husband, which was completed before Mr. J.*G. L. Hewitt, S.M., in the Coroners' Court this morning.

It was stated that the deceased had £1376 between them in bank deposits and cash. After hearing evidenco the coroner returned a verdict of murder and suicide.

Constable Neale, describing tho conditions in the house when tho police entered, said that on the floor of a back bedroom opening off tho kitchen they found Mrs. Wilson lying on her back beside tho bed with her right foot caught under the treadle of a sowing machine. She was wearing a raincoat. Her throat was cut. Wilson was hanging* over the back of a low chair with his head resting against a box. Under his right hand was a razor.

A letter on tho kitchen table was examined. It had been written by Mrs. Wilson, dated June 8, and was addressed to her father and mother in Christchurch and signed "Lucy." There was nothing in the letter having any bearing on the tragedy. On making a search later witness found in the scullery a tomahawk with blood stains on the head. In company with other members of the police force and an accountant from the Public Trust Office witness made a thorough search of the building hnd found notes and silver to the value of between and £5. In tho sewing machine Constable King found a bundle of notes valued at £7O contained in a tin. Two post office savings bank books were found in this room showing that Wilson had £BOO to his credit, and Mrs. Wilson £SOO.

The house, was well furnished and thoroughly clean and there was plenty of food. There were no blood stains outside the room in which the deceased were found. There was a piece of sewing in the machine and it appeared that the woman had been sitting at tho machine when she was attacked. In witness' opinion Wilson had struck her on the head with a tomahawk, rendering her unconscious, had then gone out and placed the tomahawk in the kitchen, and had returned and cut her throat, afterwards cutting his own throat.