COAL GAS POISONING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 179, 1 August 1932, Page 8

COAL GAS POISONING

MOTHER AND CHILD VERDICTS AT THE INQUEST. Death due to coal gas poisoning being self administered while in a depressed state of mind, was the verdict returned by Mr J. H. Salmon, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court at Wanganui when an inquest was held into the circumstances surrounding the death of Clara Elizabeth McCormick, who was found dead in her home at 22 Sydney Place on July 22. Her child Patricia, was also found dead in another room, the cause of her death being coal gas poisoning, accidentally received through the action of the mother.

John McCormick, husband of the late Mrs McCormick, said that on the morning of July 22 he had gone to Hawera to drive the lorry for the New Zealand Express Company. He had left his wife and children in good health. When he had returned at about 9.30 at night he had smelt gas when approaching the back door. The front door was open and he went straight into the kitchen to find his wife lying with her head in the oven. He had pulled her out and she appeared to be dead. He had received assistance, when it was found that the baby was lying dead in another room. Dr. Hutchison had been called in. Witness said that his wife had been depressed though he had never heard her express any intention of doing herself any harm. Evidence was given by Frank Copland Hutchison, a medical practitioner at Wanganui, that on July 22, at about 9.30 p.m. he was called to the homo of the McCormick’s at 22 Sydney Place. On arrival he found Mrs McCormick lying dead on the floor in the kitchen, which contained a gas stove and in which there was a very strong smell of gas. Mrs McCormick was lying on a coat arranged with the collar inside the oven and with her head inside the oven. There wer e no signs of a struggle. A baby was lying dead in its cot in a side room. Questioned by the magistrate, witness said that he thought the gas would have percolated through, to the next room and that, it was not likely that. Mrs McCormick had intended to asphyxiate the bn by. Sufficient gas would have escaped into the room to poison the child. Patrick John O’Brien, a constable

stationed at St. John ’s, said that at 10 p.in. on .Tuly 22 he proceeded to 22 Sydney Pla*ce, where Dr. Hutchison had arrived simultaneously. After examining the bodies of Mrs McCormick and the baby, the. doctor pronounced life to bo extinct. Mrs McCormick was lying with her head near the gas oven fully dressed and the baby was lying in a cot, in a room next to the kitchen off the living room. Another child was in the front room.