PRICE SHOOTING MYSTERY

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1930, Page 11

PRICE SHOOTING MYSTERY

CORONER CLOSES INQUEST “APPARENTLY CASE OF SUICIDE.’’ THE CONCLUSION NOT DEFINITE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Palmerston N., Aug. 22. The inquiry into the death of the Palmerston North builder, Walter Edwin Price, who was found shot in his home on Alareh 5, was resumed thia morning following an adjournment of four months due to the illness of Airs.

Price. Senior-Detective Quirke said that Mr?.; Price was not fit to appear. Slie could speak only in a whisper, but was prepared to give evidence in a private room. - ' . ■ : ' The coroner, Air. Stout,- S.M., ; said, she had not been present at the time’: of the tragedy; Her evidence could; hardly carry the matter further. • • j.t Recalled, John Walter Barnard Price,; son of deceased, said that some 4ay& 1 after the adjournment on Alay 1 uAj left with his brother. and mother on a: car trip to’the north, leaving at 2 p.m.;>

To Senior-Detective Quirke witness said that he buried a cat at the back that day. He did not take anything out of.the ground. Witness was directed not to leave the Court at the conclusion of his evidenced

Aliss Dorothy Nagel, residing in the house next to the Prices, said that on. Alay - 9 from the dining .‘room of her home she saw John Price in his backyard. lie was poking the ground with a stick. The ground had been dug and ; was the border alongside the fence. She ; did not see a dead eat in his hand oxi on the ground. . She left ; the' room and aj j girl friend remained behind. The Jatteg. : called'to heri saying that ; Ehe‘ , savv I 'Joluij •! Price take something from the ground.; • Witness saw John Price walk away. No; ; one else was in sight on that day. Thel’i Price family were making preparations’ ! for their departure. jfj Afr. .McGregor, for the Price family:-; You sawi nothing in .John Price’s hand?;Witness; No. •’ The Coroner: No spade? Witness: No.

Myrtle Ellen Smith, the former wit-;) ness’ companion, said that, when she saw John. Price in the, l?ack'' yard there, was no sign of a spade or dead cat. :She saw Price bend down’ and ’take something out bf_ the ground:' It looked .like a- smalUtin or box. ; I This concluded the evidence. - 'i?

The Coroner said: “I have given ample . opportunity to the Price family to clear; j up the matter, but it has reached a; > deadlock, and we .really never got any : i further than the first statement made- i by the late Walter Price’s son. There. ) is no doubt about the cause of death.; It was due to a gunshot wound. Thereis no evidence to suggest that it was accidental." . .

It seemed that possibly it was a ease of suicide. There was a good deal of evidence supporting that theory. If it j was a case of suicide, then certain dence which should have been before the Court had ..been, deliberately suppressed.' ) There was only one person who could do' that, the one who found the body. : The theory of murder had been suggested by John Price. Although the balance of evidence was against that it was - possible. “I am not able definitely to come to a conclusion that the wound , was self-inflicted, "although I can say that it was apparently so,” concluded the coroner.

The verdict is that Price died from a gunshot wound apparently self-inflicted.