A SHOCKING AFFAIR

Southland Times, Issue 19517, 17 May 1922, Page 5

A SHOCKING AFFAIR

FATHER’S TERRIBLE DISCOVERY. MOTHER AND CHILDREN DROWNED IN BATH. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, May 16. James Arthur Thornton, residing in Gardner road, Epsom, on returning from work in the city about 10 o’clock last night found his wife and four children—a boy 7 years, a girl 4 years, a boy 2 years, and an infant of six months—drowned in the bath. Thornton, who is a foreman cleaner on the railways, left his wife and children at home about 12.30, nud-day, yesterday, the wife and family being in their ordinary health and spirits. Returning home after work, he found both the front and back doors locked and the gas alight in the breakfast room.

Getting no response to knocking, he burst open the front door and found his wife naked in the bath and the infant child on her breast, both dead. The bath was empty of water, probably through the woman’s feet dislodging the plug. Ascertaining that life was extinct, Thornton looked for the other three children and found all dead in bed in a bedroom facing the bathroom. Each body was wrapped in a separate sheet, the hair being saturated with water and froth oozing from their mouths. The theory is that the mother stripped each child and drowned it in the bath, wrapped it in a sheet, laid the body on the bed and pulled the bedclothes over it. There were no other signs of violence on the bodies. FURTHER DETAILS HOW THE DISCOVERY WAS MADE AUCKLAND, May 16. When Mr Thornton returned from the city last evening at about 10, he found the doors of his pretty little suburban home, 11 Garden Road, Epsom, barred and was unable to effect an entrance. When he left his wife earlier in the day she appeared in her usual good spirits, and expressed no intention of going out. Becoming alarmed, he forced the front door open, and on searching the house, found his wife, Beatrice, dead in the bath with her youngest child, Eileen Frances, aged six months, clasped in her arms. No sign could be found of the other children. After making another hurried search of the house he communicated with the Epsom Police, and Constable Wales assisted in another search of the premises. In a bedroom the children were found, each wrapped naked in a sheet and placed on a double bed with the bed-clothes carefully arranged over them. Nearest the wall lay James, and beside him was Mary, while on the outside lay the youngest sister, Evelyn. The unfortunate mother had apparently carried the children and placed them on the bed after drowning them in the small bathroom. Dr. Reid, who had also been summoned, pronounced life extinct. The bath was a small tin one and could not have contained more than two feet of water. A few blood stains on the floor at the head of the bath are the only indication of the struggle that must have taken place when the mother placed the children there. There is no evidence that Mrs Thornton had intended bathing the children, as soap had not been used. The bath was devoid of water, which is accounted for by one of the convulsive movements of the woman’s foot striking the chain and pulling out the plug. The bodies, which were all found withoutclothing of any description, bore no marks whatever. A search by the police failed to disclose the presence of any poison in the house. Everything was in order and there was nothing to indicate that there had been a struggle. When the husband left home his wife gave no indication of suicidal intention and appeared quite normal. It is understood that she had apparently been in satisfactory health, although it is believed that she suffered severely at times since her last confinement six months ago. The neighbours regarded her as a quiet and industrious housewife, whose conduct gave no indication that she was otherwise than perfectly normal in her actions. Mr and Mrs Thornton are believed to have formerly resided in Wellington, but they had been living in Epsom for the ijjast three and a half years.