TWO WOMEN SUICIDES

Hokitika Guardian, 4 August 1927, Page 3

TWO WOMEN SUICIDES

JI'AIPKD OVER CLIFFS

SYDNEY, July .22

Ail extraordinary coincidence is associated with the discovery of the bodies of two women at Coogee and Bondi respectively this week, lor they had both jumped to death from cliffs more than lOf) feet high, and medical evidence shows that both had apparently taken the lean about the same time, though the spots they selected were more than a mile apart.

One of the women, who was 53 years of age, had jumped 150 feet trom the cliffs” at Ben Buckler, Bondi. Earlier in the day she had been reported missing from her home, as -she had failed to return from early morning church. For six weeks prior to her suicide she had been .suffering from nerves, and was under the delusion that someone was after her. To recover her body it was necessary for the police to travel more than a mile over a rough, rocky track, and the return journey, with her body on the stretcher between them, was a particularly arduous undertaking.

Alystery surrounds the identity of the woman who jumped over Suicide Point. Coogee, at a spot equally inaccessible from shore. In her case the police were able to get the body by descending precipitous cliffs, but they had to requisition the services of fishermen. who rowed round in the open sea, to get the body hack to the nearest beach. At the time of writing no one had claimed the body of this woman, who was well dressed, though every mark of identification had been removed from her clothing before she went over the cliffs. That two cases of women jumping to death should have occurred in the one day is remarkable, for records show that during last year—and, in fact for years past—that form of suicide by women is the least popular of all.

It is believed likely that Thomas Fryer, an elderly hospital patient, who has been missing in the Coogee district for many days, lias gone over the cliffs also. He is 58 years of age. and disappeared, clad only in pyjamas, a dressing gown, and shoes, at 3 a.m. last Friday. A night watchman in a street adjacent to the hospital saw the man walking down the street soon after he left the hospital, but lieyonr* that nothing has Iwen heard of him since.

He was suffering from severe concession, and continued searches have failed to bring to light any traces of his subsequent movements. He had, it is believed, suicidal tendencies, but though thorough patrolling lias been done along the cliffs, no sign of his bodv has been found.