OLD MAN'S DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 10

OLD MAN'S DEATH

EXPOSURE AND EXHAUSTION

Lvidence that the deceased was vcrv absent-minded and that his memory was tailing him was given this morning at the inquest on William -Shearer, aged 81 who wandered away from his hornS in K ai .oii on Saturday last and was found dead in a gully, near Karon Cemetery on Wodues-

The. widow of the deceased said she last saw her husband alive about 10.45 a.m on baturday; he was in the garden then .and gave no intimation that he intended to leave the house. He often went for walks, but he usually told her before he set out. It was quite possible in view of his impaired faculties that he would forget his way back to the house. He had wandered away from the house three or four times.

Constable W. S. Brown said he removed the body from a bush-covered gully to the west of Karori Cemetery. It was .lying m a slight depression The ground ■ was swatnpy, but there was no surface water..- The,grass was tramped down as if the deceased had made some efforts to .. get out.

The Coroner (Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M.) said that the evidence led to a clear finding. His verdict was that the deceased died from exposure and exhaustion on or about Ist December, having wandered away from his home and by reason of Ilia age and impaired faculties had been unable to return.