An Extraordinary Case.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 57, 1 September 1894, Page 4

An Extraordinary Case.

The Hull coroner has been mvesfi-o-atinjr an extraordinary case, in which a would-be suicide die<l from fear of his own action. The deceased, Ed«ard Dent, forty-seven years of age, owned, up to a 'ew weeks *po, a large drapery establishment. He became bankrupt, and this affected his mind somewhat. Wh»n his wife and family were away he borrowed a cloth'-s line from a neighbour, "went into his own house, and drew down thft blinds. The woman who ba<> lent him the rope, seeing thts, raised an alarm, and an entry be»n«r ■ ffected. Dent was found kneeling ou the ground, with the rope round his neck, dead. The doctor wh<* wa« summoned saw a mark of a cord round his neck but, as he thought the appearances were not consistent with he idea that death had resulted from hanging-, he made a port-roortem examination. He then found tbat de*th was due to syncope. Fear or excitement in contemplation of the deed had acted on a weak and diseased heart, and Dent had died before he could put bis Mention into execution 'J be doctor, in giving evidence, said that he had been unable to find a record of a similar case. Ihe jury re-turned-a verdict of death from syncope.