FARM TRAGEDY.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19253, 7 November 1934, Page 2

FARM TRAGEDY.

"WORRIED OVER TRIFLES." Away Half An H«p#. FARM HAND'S STORY. INQUEST ADJOURNED. (Special to Star). HAMILTON, Nov. 7. The inquest into the deaths of the Rogers family was opened yesterday before the district coroner, Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M. David William Wyatt Shepherd, iged 19, a farm-hand at Horsham Downs, said he had been working for his brother-in-law, Rogers, for the last three months. At 11.30 a.m. on Monday he entered the house and had a cup of tea with his sister. Rogers was then at Williamson's farm, a quarter of. a mile away, returning some wire strainers he had borrowed. Nola, the infant, was in a pram and Barbara in a cot in the bedroom. His sister was well and happy. Rogers returned and had a cup of tea, and then left tho house, and Mrs. Rogers started washing clothes.

Witness said he went to the Williamsons, and on returning half an hour later he saw Mrs. Rogers lying on the floor of the washhouse. She had been shot through the head. The infant Nola in the pram had been shot in the head, and in the bedroom witness saw Rogers lying on the floor, dead. He ran to Mr. Williamson and told him, and also telephoned for the police. The pearifle found by Rogers' body was owned by witness' brother, Leonard Batt Shepherd, of Cambridge. 0-> October 30 Rogers bought a packet of cartridges, as the rifle was used for shooting rabbits, but witness understood that no cartridges wero left.

Rogers and his wife had always been happy together, and witness had never heard of any trouble between them. Leonard Shepherd and his wife visited the Rogers on Sunday, and before their arrival Rogers seemed depressed, but he Avas moro cheerful later. He was given to worrying over trifles, and said ho could not see how the farm could pay. The farm cost £2B per acre, but no deposit was paid when Rogers purchased it last June. Witness knew Rogers had paid the last quarterly instalment of interest, and that ho had enough money to pay the next instalment when it was.due. The inquiry was adjourned sino die.