MURDERER UNKNOWN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 17 (Supplement)

MURDERER UNKNOWN

DEATH OF ADELINE WILSON. United Press Association—By Electrlo Tel egraph—Copyrleht (Received March 20, 9.45 p.m.) BRISBANE, March 20. The Coroner, inquiring into the death of Adeline Wilson, found that she was murdered by some person or persons unknown. (The body of Adeline Wilson, aged 16, was found in a paddock at Ormond, not far from her home, on January 10 last. A stocking was stuffed into the girl’s mouth, and another was tied round her neck. Her legs also were tied. It was believed that death was due to suffocation. There was evidence that the girl was dragged along the ground for some distance. The police were looking for a youth who was seen talking to Miss Wilson near the front gate of her home on the night before her death. The outrage was the third within two months of a similar kind. Mena Griffiths, aged 11, was murdered and found in an empty house at Ormond. A fortnight later Mary Dean, aged 25, a school teacher, was found murdered in a lane at El wood.)

COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. MRS HEARN PLEADS INNOCENCE. United Presa Association—By Electrlo Telegraph—Copyright (Received March 20, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, March 19. Mrs Hearn has been committed for trial. She declared her innocence. (Mrs Annie Hearn was charged •at the Police Court, Launceston, Cornwall, on February 24, with murdering her sister. Miss Mary Everard, aged 52, also her friend, Mrs Alice Thomas. The prosecuting counsel, Mr Devlin, said that Dr. Lynch, a Home Office expert, had formed the opinion that Miss Everard was slowly poisoned over a period of seven months before her death when Mrs Hearn was nursing and feeding her. Mrs Hearn and Miss Everard in 1925 went to live at Lewannick, near the Thomas farm. Mr Thomas frequently visited them and took them out for drives. His wife did not visit them often, but she did not object to the friendship with her husband. In 1926 Mrs Hearn bought a tin of weed killer containing 4GOO grains of arsenic. Counsel read extracts from Miss Everard’s diary beginning in January, 1930. This detailed her sufferings until she died in July. There were repeated references in the diary to symptoms which counsel said suggested repeated doses of arsenic. A post-morten examination revealed .77 grains of arsenic in the body. Arsenic was also present in the hair, nails and skin, showing that the drug had been administered for a long period. The post-mortem on Mrs Thomas revealed in her body .85 grains of arsenic. Mrs Hearn subsequently disappeared. She went to Torquay and sought a situation wearing spectacles which she had not worn before.)