THREE VICTIMS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20673, 11 March 1937, Page 10

THREE VICTIMS

THE HENLEY FIKE By Telej'ra.ih—Press Association DUNEDIN, March 10. Three men, not two, as at first presumed, perished in the fire in an old house by the Taieri River at* Henley on Saturday night. This revelation in the mystery, 1 the identity of only one of the victims having yet been proved, was made at the pathological examination of the remains yesterday, after the inquest on the two boc .es had been opened. When the fire burned itself out in the early hours of Sunday morning, two piles of ashes and remnants of bones were found m the debris of the front room on the bottom floor. The first remains were recovered inside the room at the spot where the first farmer to arrive at the blazing building saw a body in the flames. The other remains were found just inside the door, four feet away from the other body. When the fire was raging three or four Henley settleis saw two bodies in the flames, while others have since stated that they saw three bodies. That a third man was incinerated in the fierce blaze is now positively established.

Yesterday the examination of the two piles of remain.; was made by Dr. R. McAlister Wylie, of Outram. The first set of bones were proved to be the remains of one adult, but the bones collected from the debris near the door were found to be those of two adults. The third man is believed to be an elderly stranger tc the district, who was given a lift in a motor car towards Otokia on Saturday afternoon by a young man. He asked if there were any empty houses at Henley, and the young settler told him there were two or three, but he did not direct him to any.