INTOXICATED GIRL LEAPS OVER CLIFF

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 562, 15 January 1929, Page 9

INTOXICATED GIRL LEAPS OVER CLIFF

FATAL JUMP FOLLOWS FIGHT BETWEEN MEN OF NEW YEAR PARTY (United P.A.—By 'Telegraph—Copyright J SYDNEY, Monday. An inquest was held to-day concerning the death of Nola Rowley, aged IS, who was killed at the bottom of a precipice at Echo Point, Katoomba, early in the morning of New Y'ear’s Day. Cyril Thompson, brother-in-law of deceased, deposed that he drove a motor-car from Sydney to Katoomba on New Year’s Eve. The party consisted of deceased, her brother and sister and two young men. They had a dozen bottles of beer and some whisky in the car. The party danced in La Plaza saloon at Echo Point until 2 a.m. Deceased left the hall with a man. Later she was discovered in an intoxicated condition, arguing and crying in turn. A free fight then occurred between the young men in the party. Deceased was then seen to climb over the guard-rail at the Echo Point lookout station and to drop over the cliff, a distance of nearly 200 ft. Witness expressed the opinion that deceased must have obtained liquor from other people while she was outside the saloon. The coroner returned a verdict to the effect that deceased had committed suicide through a temporary mental derangement caused by partaking of too much liquor.