HANGING FROM SIGNPOST

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1930, Page 8

HANGING FROM SIGNPOST

CARDIGAN TIED ROUND NECK GlU'l’sCiMl'. FIND AT TUTUTAWA MAX A VICTIM OF ILL HEALTH. A gruesome sight met the astonished gaze of Leonard J. Caskey, Tututawa, when he passed through the front .gate of his property yesterday morning. Hanging from a sign post at the Tututawa cross-roads he found the body of a man whom he recognised as Ernest Southam Beckwith, 23 years of age. Mr. Caskey promptly cut the body down, but found life extinct. Beckwith was a single mdn and had been an inmate of the Taihape and New Plymouth hospitals for about six months. A month ago ho returned to live at Tututawa. To assist Beckwith to forget his ill health it was arranged that he should be employed on light work by Mr. G. F. Muggleton, a farmer. '» On Monday Beckwith accompanied Mr. Muggleton to his farm, arriving there about 3.30 p.m. After tea the two men sat talking until 7 p.m. when Beckwith wont to his room. Ten minutes later Mr. Muggleton heard Beckwith leave his room and go .outside. As ho had not returned" by 4 p.m. Mr. Muggleton went to Mr. Southam’s r»3idenc n . Beckwith, however, was not there and a search failed to reveal any trace of him. It was between 7 a.m. and 7.30 a.m. that Mr. Caskey, who is employed as road foreman by the Stratford County Council, discovered Beckwith''hanging from the road sign, about 100 yards from the hall. The body was suspended from the cross arms of ' the sign by his cardigan, which was tied tightly around his neck. An inquest wilßbe held to-day.