SUICIDE SENSATION

Hokitika Guardian, 26 September 1928, Page 5

SUICIDE SENSATION

YOUNG WOMAN’S DEATH. w A: • ' (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). AUCKLAND, Sfept. 25. Unusual circumstances were disclosed at .the inquest on Miss Muriel Priscilla Barton, aged 26, who fell dead in the shop of A. Fallwell, a chemist, at Papatoetoe, after taking poison, late yesterday afternoon. . - Besides being an accomplished musician, Miss Barton wcb well known in the district. For some time she Lad been in the employ of the Papatoetoe Town Board/ She resided with her father, Mr S. H. Barton. It was stated that about 4.30 Miss Barton visited Fallwell’s shop and asked for a poison stronger than rat poison, which she had previously purchased. Satisfied that it was for the purpose of killing rats the chemist supplied poison. Returning to the Town Board Office, Miss Barton consumed about half a bottle of the poison. She then telephond to Fallwell, and told him what she had done, asking him what she should do. Fallwell replied : that he ; would give her an emetic, and rush it" to her, but Miss Barton told him that ‘she would walk to his shop, four or five chains away, and take it there. Just as she walked into the shop she died. Dr J. J. Valentine, who had been summoned by Fallwell, arrived .to find Miss Barton on the floor.; :A medical examination had revealed the deceased to be perfectly normal, and the doctor could find no. reason why Miss Barton, should have taken, her life. Momentarily fits of depression had been experienced by his daughter for a number of years, according to Mr Barton. She was quite healthy. Coroner Hunt, S.M: returned a vermomentary state of depression, diet of death by poisoning while in a