TRIPLE TRAGEDY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21716, 26 July 1940, Page 3

TRIPLE TRAGEDY

SHOCKING CRIME IN COUNTRY HOME Dramatic details ot a triple shooting tragedy at a beautilul country house in Suffolk were related at an inquest held at edington, near Havernia, a lew weeks ago. The jury found that Owen Gurteen, aged 52, independent, of Prospect House, Kedington, murdered his wife, Mrs Alice M. P. Gurteen, aged 49, and his daughter. Daphne Digby Gurteen aged 16, and afterwards committed suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed. Horace Jack Tuck, motor engineer, of Haverhill, stated he was working at the house on the morning of the tragedy when he saw Mrs Gurteen, who had "blood streaming down her,” rush frOxA the house screaming for Miss Daphne. Lying on he Drive He went into the kitchen to see what was the matter, and on hearing a shot went outside again to find Mrs Gurteen lying on the drive with blood flowing from the back of her head. “I just saw the of Mr Gurteen ;om< into the front of the house wearing a dressing gown or mackintosh, and carrying a gun in front of him.” Tuck declared. Two household servants took refuge in their bedroom, which they barricaded. Tuck told two soldiers who came up that the owner of tac house had shot his wife and was hiding in the house with a gun. One of the soldiers loaded his rifle and stood on guard at the drive, while the other watched on the road until the police arrived. Sergeant William Fox and Gunner Sidney Thomas told how they guarded the house. Thomas .aid that a woman s shout for Leip was followed by a shot Hilda Seeley, cook, told the coroner she thought Mr Gurteen was worried about his daughter going back to school, ~nd Mrs Gurteen had said she did not know how she would control him. “Ead Storms” Inspector Last, of Haverhill, relatea j that he entered the house under cover of the military who were armed, and was then’ informed that Mr Gurteen was not in the house. He found Daphne shot dead in the study. Police Constable Bacon stated Mi Gurteen was lying at the rear of the house, with a sporting gun beside him It contained a spent cartridge. He found a spent cartridge in the drive one at the foot of the stairs, and another one in a downstairs room. Conrad S. Gurteen stated that his brother, following a nervous breakdown some years ago, spent 12 months in Canada and America, and returned to England quite recovered. He served in the Great War, and certainly had storms, but his relationship with his wife was most happy. Dr. Sunderland, of Haverhill, said he had seen nothing about Owen Gurteen to suggest he would suffer from violent dementia, nor any grounds for putting him under restraint.