Auckland Student’s Death

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31117, 21 July 1966, Page 14

Auckland Student’s Death

Sir, —From your report of the alleged suicide of John Fleming, one might suppose that after death by carbon monoxide poisoning the body somehow removed itself from the car to be “found near a ear at Mountain road.” 1 would assume that Mr Fleming, while fatally poisoned, retained sufficient strength and consciousness to open the car door and walk a certain distance before expiring due to the effects of the poison. I wonder if my assumption is correct, and whether it is consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning for consciousness and strength to remain after absorption of a fatal dose. Was there medical evidence to this effect?—Yours, etc., L. F. J. ROSS.

July 15, 1966. [The Press Association report from Auckland appears to have been incorrect. The Coroner (Mr A. D. Copeland), to whom this letter was referred, advises: “The deceased was found by his brother in a motor-car with a hose connected to the exhaust and the engine running. Two letters in deceased’s handwriting were in the car expressing his reason for taking his life. He was removed from the car by his brother, who applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until a doctor and ambulance arrived, when a resuscitator machine was used without success. It was the doctor who stated that when he arrived ‘he found deceased near a car at Mountain road’.”]