Murder by a Religo-Maniac.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVII, Issue 5203, 9 February 1892, Page 3

Murder by a Religo-Maniac.

(by telegraph.) Auckland, February 9. News has reached here that David Munro, of Tauranga, in a fit of insanity, attacked his wife and four children with a flat iron, and that several of the children are dying. There are no particulars.

FULLER PARTICULARS. This morning the whole of Tauranga was thrown into a state of great excitement through the news that Duncan Munro (stepson of James Bodell, late Mayor of the town) had murdered his wife and four children, aged respectively nine months, and three, five, and six years—the youngest being a girl and the three others boys. For the last couple of days Duncan Munro, who was some two or three years ago an inmate of the "VVhau Lunatic Asylum, has been certainly not accountable for his actions, as he is suffering from relgious mania, and has been talking of offering up a sacrifice to the Most High ; but as he had done the same on former occasions no notice was taken of him, except that his relatives kept an eye on him. Last night his brother left him at his house at about nine o'clock, with his wife and children in the front part of the house, and Duncan in the kitchen, with a room adjoining to sleep in. The door between the front room and kitchen was only to be opened from the front. At 7 o'clock this morning the daughter of M'Roberts, milkman, went with the milk, but could not make anyone hear, and called her father, who was with the milk cart. M'Roberts opened the kitchen door and found Mrs Munro and the eldest boy on the floor in a pool oE blood, and their heads frightfully knocked about. He then saw Munro on the beach at the back of the house, in his night clothes. M'Roberts informed Bodell, who lives opposite, and the police and doctors were soon in attendance. It was then discovered that the wife and children still breathed, and underneath the bodies were found a flat-iron and a rolling - pin, both covered with blood, which were the weapons used, evidently. On going into the front bedroom it was found that the two little boys were in the double bed with their skulls smashed, and in the cot was the little girl with her brains spattered over the bedclothes. "When the doctor arrived all the bodies breathed, but from the first no hopes were held out. Since then the youngest child and the two eldest boys (George and Johnny) have died. There are great signs of a desperate struggle, for articles of furniture and ornaments are smashed and broken. It is presumed that the affair took place at about 3 a.m. Munro was promptly arrested in the town in bis nightshirt, which

ia covered all over with spots of blood. Dr Bullen thinks it is probable that a knife was used on Mrs Munro, but no such weapon can be found. All the skulls are battered on the left side.