PRICE TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 22 August 1930, Page 5

PRICE TRAGEDY

THE ' INQUEST FINDING. AN OPEN VERDICT. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association.* r PALMERSTON N., Aug. 22. An inquest into the death of the Palmerston North builder, Walter Edwin Frice, . was was found, shot in his,i home, on March sth last. was resumed this.morning, following an .ad-, jou,rnment "pf' four months due to the, illness ' of . Price. . Senior-Detective Quirke ?aid Mrs Price was not fit to appear. She could only speak in a whisper, but was prepeired to give evidence in a private room, Coroner. Stout, S.M., said she had not heen present, at .the time of the tragedy. Her evidence could hardly carry the,.matter further.;, He recalled John Walter Barnard; Price, son jof the deceased, who said some days after the adjournment on May Ist last he left with his brother and , another on a car trip to the north leaving at ~two p.m. jPo (Senior Detective Quirke, wit-, nets said he buried a cat at the bank that ,day, He did not take anything out of the ground, Witness was directed not to leave the'Court at the conclusion of his .evidence. . . , , Miss Dorothy Nagel. residing in a ihouse- next to Price’s said on May 9th ldst from the dining room of her home she saw John Price in his backyard. He was poking the ground witli a stick. The ground had been dug and was a border alongside a fence. She did not see a dead cat in his hand or on the ground. She left the room and a girl friend remained behind, The latter called to her saying she saw John Prioe take something from the ground, Witness saw John Price walk away. No one else was in Bight on that day. The .Price family were making preparations for departure. Mr McGregor for the. Price family You saw- .nothing in John Price’s hand.-,/, Witness:—No., The Coroner:—No spade. Witness:—No. MyVtle Ellen Smith, the former witness’s companion said she saw John Frice, in Alie backyard.. There was noisign of a- spade or a dead cat. She saw John Price bend down, and something out of the ground. It looked like a small tin box. This concluded the evidence. The Coroner said:—ll have given ample opportunities to the Price fam- j ily to clear the matter up, but it has reached a deadlock, and we really never got any further than the first statement made by the late Walter Price’s son. There is no doubt about the cause of death. It was due to n gunshot wound. There is no evidence to suggest it was accidental. It seemed possibly a case of suicide. Theta was a good deal of evidence supporting that story. If it were a casd'of suicide, then certain evidence which should 1 have been 'before tho Court has been deliberately suppressed. There was only one person who could do that, one who found * the .-(body. - The .theory of murder had been suggested by John Price. Although the balance of the evidence was against that, it was possible. I am not ftble definitely to,, come to the conclusion that the wound was selfinflicted although I can say it was mpparently so. TThe verdict is that Price died from a gunshot wound apparently self-inflicted. This really amounted to an open verdict.