GIRL’S SUICIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 15 January 1929, Page 1

GIRL’S SUICIDE

200 ft. LEAP TO DOOM

'Australian Press Association) (United Service.)

SYDNEY, Jan. 14. The Coroner to-day inquired into the

death of No!a Rowley, who was killed at the bottom of the precipice at Echo Point, on the Pdue Mountains early on New Year’s morning. Cyril Thompson, her brother-in-law, deposed that he drove a- car from Sydney to Katoomba on New Year’s Eve. the party in the car consisting of the deceased’s brother and sister, two young men and'Nola. There were a dozen bottles of beer and whisky in the car. The party danced in the La Plaza Saloon at Echo Point till 2 a.m. Nola retired with n man. She was later discovered in an intoxicated condition, arguing and crying alternately. A free- fight occurred among the young men over Nola, who was seen to climb over the guard rail at the Echo Point Lookout, and then to drop over the cliff nearly two hundred feet.

Thompson stated he was of the opinion that she must have obtained liquor from others while outside of the saloon. The Coroner returned a verdict that Nola Rowley had committed suicide, through temporary mental derangement, caused by partaking of too much liquor.