SHOCKING EVENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1057, 21 February 1911, Page 5

SHOCKING EVENT.

MASTERTON MIDNIGHT MYSTERY WHAT BEFELL TWO CHILDREN. (fly Telephone— Special Correspondent.) ' Masterton, February 21. A shocking event occurred in Masterton early this morning. How it happened is,not known, but it appears that Mrs. Hector Gardiner, a, widow, who re- • turned hero recently from a visit to Taihape, was alone in her house in Essex Street with her two children—Beryl, a , girl of about 12 years of age, and Jerry, ' a boy some younger. Shortly after' 1 a.m. the boy Tan out of the house screaming and covered with.-blood, and his outcry, awakening the neighbours, : or.c of them rushed across, and entered tbo house to find tho other child lying in ' bed with a fractured skull. A broken ' ■■■■: poker was discovered close ,by, but tha mother had • disappeared. Drs. Hoskmj aud Cowie were summoned, and gave medi-', can assistance. At latest advices this ' morning both children were alive,-but grave fears were entertained fo.- the lifa . of the little girl. Sho was removed to the hospital. ' LATER, ( THE MOTHER'S BODY FOUXD, A later message states that a searcSv-:'" was subsequently made, and the body'of:-. ■ the mother was found lying in three or four inches of water under a culvert, and, qhite dead. She was clothed only in hec ' ■ ' nightdress.,- :■ . ■