BALCLUTHA SENSATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1736, 29 April 1913, Page 6

BALCLUTHA SENSATION.

MURDEROUS ASSAULT AND FIRE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Dunedin, April 28. In connection with the fatal fire at Balclutha, in which a carpenter named Littlewood, about 25 years of age, was reported to have lost his life, tho wife of the man has made a statement to the police. Sho states that between one and two o'clock 011' Sunday morning' her husband came into, her bedroom with an axe and struck her on tho head. When sho recovered consciousness she found the house ill flames. "With difficulty she escaped with her son through a window. The body of Littlewood was found in a charred condition, with tho throat cut. A doctor's examination goes to prove the truth of Mrs. Littlewood's statement.

An inquest was held this afternoon before Mr. G. W. Wood (Acting-Coroner) nnd jury of six. Constable Harvey said tliat.it was impossible to place evidence before tho jury for a week owing to Mrs. Littlenood's serious condition. It was also impossible for the police to show how tho lire was caused, but it was surmised that deceased set fire to the house. Ho believed the body found to be that of Littlewood, but it was so charred that it was impossible to identify it. An incision had been found in the throat. The inquest was adjourned till May 6. Deceased and his wife appear to have been a happy couple, wrapped up in their six-year-old child, and a sudden madness of deceased is surmised to have caused the tragedy.