GIRL'S SUICIDE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26113, 28 March 1946, Page 8

GIRL'S SUICIDE

DEATH IN CARAVAN MALE FRIEND’S EVIDENCE “NOT A CREDITABLE STORY” (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Mgr. 27. “I am quite satisfied that there is no room for doubt that this young woman herself fired the fatal shot,” said the coroner, Mr A. Addison, when concluding an inquest into the death of Miss Raewyn Edith Gollop, aged 22, a waitress, who was found dead in a caravan at Parakai, Helensville, on February 20 with a bullet wound near her heart. “I am rather distressed to hear the evidence of Opie,” continued the poroner. “It is not a very creditable story. I am thoroughly convinced that this young woman had formed a deep attachment for him, as there was something noble in her last letter which absolutely belies his evidence to the contrary.” Dudley Innes Opie, a radio electrician and dealer, said he lived in a caravan at the camping grounds at Parawai. He met the deceased when she was a waitress at an hotel at Parakai, and they had been on intimate terms on a number of occasions. She had stayed most of the night with him. Never at any time had he proposed marriage to her, and he had never given her any grounds to believe that he would. Witness said that on her afternoons off the deceased would call at his shop and they would have tea at the caravan. Worried Over Illness

On February 20 witness did not see the deceased until he arrived at the caravan about 5.30 p.m. He prepared tea while she lay down. He asked her what was wrong, and she replied that she was worried about going to hospital. She had told him previously that she had consulted Dr Dawson at Helensville on February 19 in connection with an interna) trouble. She had also told him that she would have to enter the Auckland Hospital for a month on February 27.

Witness said that after tea the deceased left the caravan for a short time to go to the hotel, and when she returned they talked. During the conversation witness told the deceased that he might become engaged to another girl whom he had met at Christmas. The deceased had known he intended to become engaged. When he told her, the deceased said nothing except that she would leijrve Helensville and go nursing. About 7.20 p.m. the deceased asked witness to get a kettle of water, and he left the caravan to do so. When he was out he passed the time of the day with a man who lived in a caravan nearly. While still out he heard a scream and a report. He did not pay much attention to it, as he thought it was someone on the see-saw. When he re-entered the caravan the deceased was lying on the floor near the sink. At first he thought she had fainted, but then, he noticed his rifle, on which he smelt powder. Realising that the deceased had shot herself, he went for help and a doctor. Witness said that the deceased at that time had not indicated that she intended taking her life. To Mr Addison, witness said that since the death of the deceased he had learned that she had previously tried to drown herself and hang herself. She had told people she was going to marry him by hook or by crook, and, although she was very affectionate at times, the affection was all on her side. Farewell Letter

Detective Sergeant Slater said there had been no sign of a struggle in the caravan. On February 22 he had found a note in a bag in the deceased’s room, which read: “ Dear Dud, —I suppose you will think I am crazy. Maybe I am, but life holds nothing at all for me. I thought that In you I may find something I have always wanted, but. I see yoU care for nothing I have to offer, so this is the only way out. Goodbye and God bless you. —Rae.” Witness said he considered that the wound was self-inflicted. A verdict was returned that the deceased died on February 20 at Parakai, Helensville, the cause of death being haemmorage from a self-inflicted gunshot wound of the heart and lung.