WANTED THE CHILD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19914, 9 August 1927, Page 7

WANTED THE CHILD

CORONER S CHARGE Authenticity of Letter Called Into Question MOTHE.", AND HER DAUGHTER’S DEATH. LPt Preu Association.] WELLINGTON, Aug. 8. “I do not believe that deceased requested this letter to be written, and 1 think it is only a wicked concoction on the part of her mother,’’ said the Coroner (Mr E. Page, S.M.), to-day at an inquest into the death of Marjorie Alice Pickering (aged 19) who died in the Wellington Public Hospital on Juno 22. Alfred E. A. Pickering said that h's wife became ill a few days before she died. A doctor was sent for and leceased was ordered into hospital. She died on the day of admission. Witness had never known his wife to take pills, and he did not know she had been taking them until the day he sent for the doctor. Dr. A. Roberts gave evidence that the pills would not poison a person unless an overdose was taken, or they were taken too frequently. In his opinion deceased died from poisoning as a result of taking pills. Corroborative evidence was given by Dr. P. P. Lynch, pathologist at the Wellington Hospital, who conducted the post-mortem examination on deceased.

Who Wrote the Letter? The mother of deceased, Annie McGregor, said her daughter had told her she had taken the pills. Detectite-Sergeant Holmes, who conducted the inquiry on behalf of the police, produced a letter which he stated was supposed to have been written by the dead girl. “Do you know anything about this?” he asked. “Yes,” said witness, “my daughter requested me to write it by her bedside when she was ill.” Mr Page: Why did you write that letter, purporting to come from the deceased? Witness: She asked me to write it. Mr Page: Is that true? —“Yes, sir.” Asill you swear that your daughter got you to write that letter, saying you were to have her baby and all her bedlongings?—l will. Why did you tell Detective Murray that your daughter wrote it?—l was upset and worried at the time. Death Accidental. The Coroner found that deceased had died from poisoning as the result of taking too many pills. At the time of taking them, however, she had no idea of taking her own life, and her death was accidental. . “Now,” said Mr Page, “I think I should say something with regard to the letter said to have been written by the mother at her daughter’s request. The mother, it appears, wanted to have the child, and nine days after her daughter was dead she took the letter to Dr. Roberts. In the witness box she swore that the letter had been written by her for deceased at her daughter’s bedside on June 19. The whole of the circumstances convince me that the daughter knew nothing about that letter, and it was written by the mother with a view to getting the child and’her daughter’s belongings. I believe the young couple had a happy life together, and that this letter was written by Mrs MacGregor after her daughter had been buried.”