A SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 243, 22 October 1901, Page 3

A SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

MURDER OF A NEW ZEALAND DOCTOR'S SISTER.

i For twelve months past a widow, Mrs I Gordon, and her so: i boy of four, api parently well-connect. people (says the special correspondent n ic Christchurch Truth), have reside,; at ottage on the outskirts at Hadzor Wo. near Droitwieh, having come to the c . uutrv for the benefit of the child’s health. its Gordon told a neighbour that her sis.er, Annie McDonnell, was going to spend a month with her at the suggestion of the medical officer of Warneford Asylum. On Wednesday in last week Mrs Gordon went to Oxford, and returned with Miss McDonnell, a young woman of plc-asing appearance. She was a little melancholy, but appeared on affectionate terms with her sister and the boy up to Tuesday evening last.

On the following morning, however, a young postman named Harris went to the j house, and receiving no answer, he went round to the back, and found Miss McDonnell lying in a pool of blood. She was still living, so he ran for assistance. The police and doctor were also sent for. When Harris and a neighbor returned Miss McDonnell had disappeared, but she was found in a well in the yard. When the body was recovered, by means of a drag attached to the well chain, life was extinct, and there wore evidences that the woman had inflicted large wounds on her arm and lc-g with a razor found near. Meanwhile the house was entered, and j Mrs Gordon and the little boy were found j lying in bed covered with blood. Both j their heads were battered in a horrible ! manner, apparently with a large hammer j found in the room. Both lingered for a ! time, but died without being able to speak. | All the circumstances support the theory ; that in a fit of madness Miss jjMcDonnell j attacked her sister and the boy, and then ! ! committed suicide. j Mrs Gordon had told a neighbor that she was the daughter of a distiller residing in the north of Scotland, and one of her brothers was a retired merchant at Enfield, and another was a doctor in New Zealand. Mrs Gordon was forty-two years of age, and Miss McDonnell two or three years younger. She has been for some timo in Warneford Asylum, but the medical superintendent, in a letter to Mrs Gordon, said her improvement was so satisfactory that he had no hesitation in I allowing her a month’s holiday. Until Miss McDonnell’s arrival at the cottage, a neighbor's daughter had slept there The cottage is situated in a secluded position, lying off the road, surrounded by trees.

j An inquest was held at Hadzor, Droit- | wich, on the bodies of fsabella Gordon, Alexander William Gordon, and Annie McDonnell. Mr Robert McDonnell, a retired East India merchant, identified the bodies as those of his sisters and nephew. Annie McDonnell, be said, was sent to Warneford Asylum in November last, but on August 2rfth she bad been discharged for a month’s trial, and was sent to her sister’s. Sho had before suffered from melancholia, and had exhibited suicidal tendencies. She had before attempted to injure herself. Evidence having been given as to the finding of Mrs Gordon and son (whoso heads had been battered with a sledge hammer), and of Miss McDonnell, who had indicted upon herself severe cuts, the jury returned a verdict of murder against Miss McDonnell as regarded Mrs Gordon and her son, and as to herself that she committed suicide while of unsound mind.