LAURIE INQUEST

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21038, 14 February 1940, Page 8

LAURIE INQUEST

OAS POISONING WOMAN’S SUICIDE VERDICT BY CORONER (By Telegraph.—Press Association) AUCKLAND, Wednesday A verdict of suicide from gas poisoning was returned by the Coroner, Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., at an inquest into the death on November 6 of Beatrice Florence Rita Laurie, aged 39, of Belmont, Takapuna, wife of Francis Leonard Laurie, storeman at the Devonport Naval Base. The police report to the coroner stated there was no family. On November 5 Laurie left home accompanied by Mrs Josephine Ann Laycock, his next-door neighbour. Next morning they were found in a bedroom at the Station Hotel in a state of collapse, both suffering from wounds in the left forearm. Dr. Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland Hospital, said the body contained carbon monoxide in at least 80 per cent of saturation. Detectives said that when they entered the house there was a strong smell of gas. Mrs Laurie was lying with her head on a cushion near the open door of the gas stove. Detective Miller said in evidence that the window and two doors of the kitchenette were closed and the back door locked. Newspaper and tea towels had been placed under both doors from the inside. The kitchenette was completely sealed. Mrs Laurie had the appearance of having died some hours previously. She was attired in a night dress and slippers. On the top page of a writing pad was the following message:— “ I leave everything I possess, personal and otherwise, to my sister, Dorothy May Illingworth, and my brother, Ernest Wheeler, to be divided equally.—Rita Laurie.” Underneath was written:— “ Please cremate me. Love to all. This is the only way. Forgive me.” Glass Found in Sink Witness added that there were two Savings Bank deposit books, one in Mrs Laurie’s name, the other a joint account with her husband, the sum of £l3 in banknotes and some silver, also an art union ticket. In the sink they found a small drinking glass which had contained a brown coloured fluid. This was later found to be a solution of opium. The body was removed to the morgue and later cremated. The Coroner: Would you say Mrs Laurie was worried by the way her husband was carrying on? Detective Miller replied that this was no doubt the case.