FOUND DYING

Southland Times, Issue 21577, 15 December 1931, Page 8

FOUND DYING

WOUND IN THROAT

WANGANUI RESIDENT WIFE ARRESTED (Per United Press Association.) Wanganui, December 14. About ten o’clock last night Alfred George Donaldson, a carpenter by trade, rushed out of his home in No. 10 Dublin street, calling for a doctor, and collapsed on the front lawn, dying shortly afterwards from loss of blood caused by a deep wound low down on the left shoulder, which severed the jugular vein. Discovered at the scene was a long iron-handled bread knife. B. Brewer, living upstairs in a flat next door, interviewed, said he heard a woman rush from the house followed by a man calling for a doctor. Brewer rushed to the scene and found the man covered in blood. Brewer called for someone to get a doctor, and then ran to St. John’s Police Station. The constable was not in, but his wife rang up the Central Police Station, and two constables were soon on the spot. When Brewer got back to the house he found a doctor attending to the patient. Brewer found a towel had been wrapped round the man. The doctor was looking at the man’s chest, so Brewer pointed to the man’s throat. When the towel was taken away It could be plainly seen there was a deep and sharp wound running right across the jugular vein, and bleeding had been very profuse. Describing the wound, Brewer said it was about an inch and a-half long and evidently done with a very sharp instrument. Dr Reid was called to the scene, but the man was dead.

Before marrying Donaldson, the victim’s wife was married to a man named Walker. There was one son of that marriage, Walter Walker, said to be about Ifi, who had been living at home until recently. The stepmother, /Amelia Kerr, also lived in the house.

This morning Elizabeth Donaldson was charged with murder and remanded until December 23. The inquest was adjourned sine die.

A tradesman states that he knew the parties had numerous quarrels.. One evening recently Mrs Donaldson had called at his home with her clothing badly torn and said she had quarrelled with her husband. She had also intimated that she intended to leave him after Christmas.