RETURNED SOLDIER'S DEATH

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 87, 7 January 1919, Page 7

RETURNED SOLDIER'S DEATH

'FALLS FROM FIRE ESCAPE. '' . ; i The cause of the death of a returned j soldier, Corporal Leslie Robert Best, ; -,j whose body was found at'the foot of a ' ; fire escape at the rear of the Columbia •.';■.) Private Hotel, Cuba Street, on Sumday .■]■>:, morning, was investigated by the Coroner, Mr. W. G.-Biddell, S.II., V yesterday. ;] Senior-Scrgoaut Willis watched the pro- ', ceedings on behalf of the police. , ■■ -. ■ Evidence was given by Sergeant' Ed- ■ i wards that early on Sunday' morning he .- j met deceased and sent him to Taranaki ■'■! Street Police Station. Shortly after 4 ' a.m. he had a conversation with deceas- ' ■:. ] Ed, who stated that he-had gone a.way J 1 with the Twenty-fifth Reinforcements •;' and returned to the Dominion on Decern- ■''~.-•• ber 20, 19!.?. He said he had no money, ' ■ but expected to receive some on Monday. j There was nothing About the manVcon- • dition l to' necessitate his detention, as hs . J was sober and in his senses. Witness .'j instructed the. man to' apply to the Re- -: turned Soldiers' Hostel or the Salvation j Army Hostel, where he would get infor- '■- .. j mation that would help him At 4.30 .' j a.m. the deceased left the station. ■■; Harry Mann,- a porter at the Columbia" 'J Private Hotel, stated that he found de- ."'-.';■; ceased's body at the rear of the Jiotei: ? about 8 a.m. on Sunday. The body was lying face downwards at the. bottom of , a fire escape. At first he thought the man was asleep, but wjien he got closa to him he saw that he was dead.. ■-.'.■ - Sergeant M'Kelvie 6aid he went'to the ■' < hotel in response to an inquiry and found •/-. ;■ . the deceased's body lying in a'pool of blood. From the appearance of .the body he was of opinion that the deceased.fell' from about the third story. The top of his skull was smashed in. Lieutenant Lancelot Heggatty, of Base '. Records, produced the file relating to> the deceased, which showed that prior, to en- ; listment he was a labourer, working at Mnrton, and was a married man with "onechild. He returned to New Zealand on December 20, 1918, suffering from a. v ; gunshot wound on the right index finger. The Coroner said the indications were that the deceased fell from some height. As he was not a boarder it was impossible to say how he came to be on the ** fire escape, or at the third story. Death' ■ must have been instantaneous. A ver■dict -was returned that. the., cause of ■ death was a fracture of the skull, due. . to the deceased accidentally falling from , v the fire escape • . . ! ....-, : '. _i