POISONED PEPPER

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18539, 9 April 1930, Page 9

POISONED PEPPER

FAMILY’S CLOSE CALL. (United Press Association—By JSleetrlo Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY, April 7. After an exhaustive investigation by detectives into the Murray family poisoning case, which first came under notice on March 4, when three members of the family were found to be suffering from arsenical or lead poisoning, the affair is regarded as accidental.

The police ascertained that a member of the family purchased a white ant exterminator, containing arsenic, three years ago and put it in a pepper castor with sawdust, intending to shake it on a white ant’s nest. He afterwards placed the castor at the back of a shelf. Later on the cook feund the castor and thinking the pepper was inside restored it to the family table, but the original purchaser of the poison was then in bed ill and was unaware that the pepper was being regularly used by other members of the family.

The victims of the poisoning have not yet fully recovered.

(The Murray family lived at Conjola, a seaside hamlet. They became ill four months ago, but it was not till March 4 that their illness was diagnosed as poisoning and the police were informed.)