A. STRANGE DEATH.

Evening Star, Issue 3845, 21 June 1875, Page 3

A. STRANGE DEATH.

A most extraordinary death formed the subject of a coroner’s inquiry at Alma, Victoria very recently, when the following facts were disclosed The deceased, a girl of fourteen, named Helen Heron, described as a fine child of healthy constitution, was playing with her younger sister half-an-hour before her death and went out of the house, leaving her sister in the bedroom with her mother. The former directly afterwards—a very little time having elapsed— opened the front door, and there saw, on the verandah, the deceased in a stooping position on her knees, with a strap under her throat, and dead. Thes trap was loose under the girl’s throat, but the latter bore a mark, evidently from the pressure of the strap upon it. The strap was suspended upon a nail upon one of the verandah posts ac the same height as the girl herself, five feet four indies Deceased had her head in the loop of the strap her back was towards the post and the nail had been pulled flat down against the post. The evidence was given principally by the little sister, an intelligent child. It was proved, further, that there had been no disturbance in the family, and deceased had not been subjected to reproof. The ‘Standard’ gives the following explanation of the child’s death Deceased placed her head in the loop of the strap, which turned or twisted which caused asphyxia. She then struggled, and in pullin°* on the strap bent down the nail, but the strap not giving way she* was strangled. It is strange the strap was found loose—her throat simply resting upon it- but the mark found by Dr Julian shows that it must have pressed tightly to cause death.