A CHILD'S DEATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23058, 8 December 1936, Page 7

A CHILD'S DEATH

OCCASaONED BY SHOCK CAUSE NOT DETERMINED MOTHER'S MENTAL STRESS (Pis Unbjed Press Association) TAUMARUNUI, Dec. 7. The death of Zena, the four-year-old daughter of Mr Ernest Prescott, a mechanic, occurred in unusual circumstances on Saturday. The mother rushed into a neighbour's in a elemented state with the child in her. arms. The father and a doctor w&re summoned immediately, and tihe child was found to be dead. No coherent statement could be obtained from the mother.

An inquest was opened for identification purposes and was adjourned. On Sunday night Dr Gilmour, pathologist, arrived by car and made a post-mortem examination. He found no signs of drowning, which was at first suspected, and no signs of suffocation, which was'also suspected. Theee were no marks of violence on the body. The child died of shock, the cause of which is not known. When the child was talqpn by her mother to the neighbour, her head was slightly wet, and it was thought then that she might have been drowned, but the pathologist's examination disproved that theory. It is suggested that the child received some accidental shock which caused her death, and that the tragic discovery unbalanced the mother's mind. She is stSH unable to give any coherent accouut of what happened.