DROWNING FATALITY

Southland Times, Issue 22419, 5 September 1934, Page 9

DROWNING FATALITY

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST.

An inquest touching the- death of Letitia Josephine Wells, aged 14, who was drowned in the Pourakino river at Granity, on August 28, was held yesterday at Riverton, before the Coroner, Mr E. C. Lewey, S.M. The father of deceased, Frederick Wells, an engine-driver employed by More and Sons, at the Otautau Timber Company’s works at Granity, said that his daughter when eigh. received a head injury from which she contracted epilepsy. An operation was performed last June. On August 28, about 6 p.m., he was at the mill finishing work. Owing to his deafness he did not notice that his daughter, who had been with "him, had not followed him home. It was discovered at the house that she was missing and later she was found by his sons in the river. Evidence regarding the finding of the body in eighteen inches of water was given by one of the sons. Constable Fraser also gave evidence, advancing the opinion that deceased had slipped through planks in the bridge. The Coroner returned a verdict of accidental drowning through falling into the river while suffering from an epileptic seizure.