SALESMAN'S DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22823, 2 September 1937, Page 15

SALESMAN'S DEATH

SELF-ADMINISTERED SHOCK WIFE'S , EVIDENCE AT INQUEST . ;/• ' [from OCR owx correspondent] FuKEKOHE, Wednesday A verdict that death was due to asphixiation and heart failure following an electric shock, selfadministercd, was returned by the coroner, Mr. C. K Lawric, J.P., at the of the/' inquest to-day into the death on Monday night of Walter Connell, radio salesman i of Harris Street,' Pukekohe. Evidence given by deceased's wife was; that she heard her husband groaning in. bed about 11 p.m. She found •that he had used his knowledge of electricity to induct cut-rent through his body from the m'ains serving the house. She released him within about two minutes, but. meanwhile he had colla'psed. , Dr. F. W. Lumsden was called and /7 arrived within 10 minutes, but Con- , nell was then dead. Witness said deceased was 36 years of age. He had suffered from tuberculosis for the past two years. He became depressed at times, and had told her that he did not think he would recover. An opinion was given by Lionel G. Sharp, engineer to the Franklin Power Board, that contact with the current would kill a human being in from 10 to 20 minute's.