CORNISH MYSTERY

Hokitika Guardian, 9 December 1930, Page 8

CORNISH MYSTERY

FURTHER EXHUAIATIONS. AIISSJNG WOMAN’S RELATIVES. I LONDON, Decemebr 6. After the issue of a Home Office order, arrangements have been made to dis-inter the bodies of the Misses Everard, aunt , and sister of Afrs Annio Hearn, missing woman, who is suspected in connection with the poisoning of Airs Alice Thorqas in Cornwall. The bodies to he exhumed are in a churchyard at Lewanick, and are being exhumed preparatory to an autopsy. At the inquest on Airs Thomas sensational evidence deepened a double mystery, and intensified the keen public interest in connection with the disappearance of Mrs,-Annie Hearn, following the death of Mrs Alice Thomas who was her friend, and who was the wife of a farmer in Cornwall. An analysis disclosed ,q fatal quantity of arsenic in Airs Thomas's body. Airs Hearn had described herself as a Sheffield doctor’s widow, but a doctor with a name identical with that of her alleged husband denied she is his wife. A letter read at the inquest, posted by Hearn from Launceston (Cornwall) to Thomas’s husband on November 10, the day she vanished, ran ; “Goodbye, I am going out, if I can. I cannot forget that awful man, and the things he said. I am innocent,■ blit she’s dead. It was my lunch she ate. I cannot blear it. When I bam dead, they will be sure I am guilty. You at least will be clear, and may your dear wife’s presence guard and comfort you still. My life isn’t a- great thing now Afinnie the deceased (sister of Hearn) has gone. Aly conscience is clear, so I am not afraid. I am giving instructions about selling things. I hope you will be paid in full.” It was explained that the “awful man” was Percy Parsons, who said after the funeral, “This is a poisoning case and must he cleared up.” A chemist deposed that Airs Hearn .bought arsenical weed-killer in 1926.* The Thomases and Airs Hearn, while on an excursion to Bade, on October 18, ate some salmon sandwiches provided by Airs Hearn, who apparently consumed one, but was unaffected. A dos e of whisky cured Air Thomas’s slight illness. Airs Hearn, or Airs Thomas, usually provided the sandwiches on such occasions. The latter became ill when her husband was mo- ! tori na her and Airs Hearn homewards, and died in the Plymouth Hospital on November 3, a few hours after admission.