INQUEST ON THE BODIES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 221, 20 July 1866, Page 1 (Supplement)

INQUEST ON THE BODIES.

(surgical evidence.) This morning, at 11 o'clock, an inquest j was held by the Coroner, W. W. Squires, on the body of the unfortunate men. The j inquest was held in the Provincial Hall. Mr Vickerman, M.E.C.S., London, and! living in Nelson, said : I have examined j the body of Pontius, which was pointed! out to ine as such. I found a pistol bullet j wound on the back of the head, on the j left side. It had fractured the skull onl the left side. There was also a bullet; wound at the inner corner of the right eye. j The lower jaw was fractured on the right j side. The forehead and scalp were dis-l coloured by bruises. These seem sufficient j cause for death in each case. I found two j wounds in the head of Pontius. I think j both bullet marks of ingress, not egress, j Without a post-mortem I cannot speak j with certainty. The marks were from the! bullets of an ordinary sized revolver. I j s'.iould think one ball was fired from a! distance and the other close, if the scalp j were taken as an indication. I saw no! I marks of gunpowder about the face. The: jrain might have washed them away. I | consider the jaw was fractured by a blow, j iThere was no external wound. I have' | seen the body of Dudley. There is a mark ; round the throat as though he had been : strangled with a thin rope. From its j position I infer he must have had his neck- | erclnef on at the time, the mark is so perI fectly straight around the neck. I consider suffocation or strangulation was the 1 | cause of death. In Kempthorne 1 found ; a wound at the right ear, from a bullet j apparently. Part of the external ear was j carried away, and a portion of the bony I structure, through which I could pass mv

finger and feel the brain softened. On the opposite side of the skull, underneath the scalp, I detected a fracture, but no external wound. I consider the fracture was caused by the same bullet which entered behind the ear. This wound was quite sufficient to account for death. The large size of the aperture and the nature of the fracture proved that it had been' caused by a bullet fired closely. I also examined the body of Mathieu. I found a wound in the breast, a little to the left of the region of the heart, which I believe to have been inflicted partly by a bullet and partly by a knife or some sharp-pointed instrument. I form this opinion because the lower edge of the rib immediately above the wound, has a semicircular piece carried out of it, such as would be produced by a pistol bullet. The incised wound proceeded ftom that downwards. On the man's shirt corresponding to the face of the wound, is a round hole, that would be produced by a pistol bullet, and a cut as if produced by a knife is close to it. lam certain these two marks were caused by different instruments. On ex aining the wound I found it was carried up toward the heart. This would account for death. Mr Cotterill, M.R.0.5., of London, corroberated the evidence of Mr Vickerman.

FINDING OF THE BODIES

Constable "William Flett: I was searchin for the bodies of the missing men on the Maungatapu, and I found them. I found Felix Mathieu first, on the Nelson side of

>.the third creek from Franklin's, less thai > jha'f-a-mile from the roadway. He wah ijnearalarge rock on the opposite side oi 11 the creek. The rock is on the farther side 11 from Nelson, about half-a-dozen yards from I the road. I found the body in a place ] where a tree was up-rooted. He was lv:jing on his back, his arms tied behind him with a leather strap, and his legs were strapped together. He was dead. There was a wound in the left breast, and a ring on the third finger of the left hand. 1 found Dudley about eighteen yards off, He was on his face and dead. A handkerchief was tied round his throat. I next saw Kenipthorne. I only knew Dudley before. I got the names from parties who recognised them and pointed them out to | me, Kenipthorne was about twenty yards | from Dudley. He was on his back. I | noticed a bullet wound behind the right | ear. He was dead. I found Pontius about thirty yards lower down. I saw no wound on him. Several large stones were piled on him. I informed the party of the discovery. I coo-eed for fifty minutes before they came. 1 went in search of the volunteer party, who came and brought the bodies down. I found them about tea o'clock last Friday morning. 1 came into town with the bodies, and saw them deposited in the engine house. I was not present when Dr Vickerman examined them.

The Coroner said there was no further evidence before the jury, to whom he would leave the case. The jury immediately returned the following verdict :—That on or about the 13th June, 1866, John Kempthorne, Felix Mathieu, James Dudley, and James Pontius, were wilfully and maliciously murdered on the Maungatapu.