POINT HALSWELL TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21995, 3 July 1933, Page 10

POINT HALSWELL TRAGEDY

CORONER INSPECTS . BODIES (Peb United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, July 1. The body of Mrs Janes remained at the flat in Ohiro road all night, guarded by two constables, and was rfemoved to the morgue this morning. An inspection of the bodies jvas made by Mr B. Page. S.M., for the purposes of an inquest.

The drowning of a five-year-old boy at. Point Halswell early on Friday morning and the rescue of his father from the water at Thorndon the same afternoon led the police to visit a flat in Wellington, where they found the dead body of the child’s mother. The flat in which the three persons lived is at the bottom of a three-storeyed house at 27 Ofcirn road. The bottom storey is well below the level of the road. While gathering mussels in the vicinity of Point Halswell shortly after mid-day a man found the body of the child on the rocks at about high-water mark. Apparently the boy had been drowned some time earlier in tlje morning. The boy’s parents were not known until several hours later.

About 1.30 p.m. cries were heard from a man struggling in the water near the Thorndon breastw'ork. Men nearby pulled him out in an unconscious condition, and he was taken to hospital, whei'e he was identified as George Janes. The police connected neither the child nor tho man with tho house at Ohiro road until an occupant of the top flat, hearing of a man named Janes being found in the harbour, rang the station. When a constable arrived at the bottom flat he found the dead body of Mrs Janes.