GARDENER FOUND DEAD WITH RIFLE NEARBY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19268, 3 January 1931, Page 2

GARDENER FOUND DEAD WITH RIFLE NEARBY.

Douglas Hooper, a young married man, was found dead from a bullet wound this morning in a shed at the Rhodes Convalescent Home, where he was employed as a gardener. There was a rifle alongside the body. The discovery was made at 7.30 o’clock by Leslie Burnett -when he went to the shed to milk.

Members of the staff at the Home state that Hooper appeared all right yesterday and no reason could be suggested for what had happened. Hooper was Second gardener at the Home, where his father is head gardener. He did not live at the Home, but at Spreydon. He leaves a widow and one child.

A verdict of death from a gun-shot wound, self-inflicted, was returned by the Coroner (Mr H. P. Lawry) when the inquest was opened this afternoon. Constable W. Cummings represented the police. Leslie Barnett, a cowboy at the Rhodes Convalescent Home, described the finding of the body. The gun was between Hooper s legs and his foot was in a loop of bootlace attached to. the trigger. The gun was used for shooting rats, and was usually kept in the shed.

Jean Graham Hooper, of 63, Barrington Street, said that her husband had had no financial worries and seemed in the best of health when he left home. He had worried somewhat over the de:.th of his mother recently.