EYERARD MURDER TRIAL

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1931, Page 5

EYERARD MURDER TRIAL

MR3HEARN CHARGED. A CORNWALL SENSATION. (United Prose Association —By Electric l elegraph-—Copyright). (Received this day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, February 25. Mrs Annie Hearn was charged at the Police Court, Launceston, Cornwall. with murdering her sister Hiss Mary Evcrard, aged 62, also a friend Mrs Alice Thomas. .Mr Devlin, prosecuting, said Doctor Lynch, a Home Office expert was of the opinion that Evcrard was slowbpoisoned during seven months before her death, when Hearn was nursing and feeding her. Devlin pointed out that Hearn and Kverard in 1925 went, to live at Lewan. nick near Thomas’s farm. Mr Thomas frequently visited and took them out for His wife was Hearn’s friend, but was not visited often, but she did not object to the friendship. Hearn in 1926 bought a tin of weekkiller containing four thousand grains of arsenic, Devlin read extracts from Everard’s diary beginning ill January 1030 detailing her sufferings Until she died in July. There were repeated references to symptoms which Devlin said suggested repeated doses of arsenic, Referring to the day May Bth, Devlin said Kverard took suddenly ill at night,. Hearn called in a neighbour and Everard said to her that the medicine was overstrong. It is poison, she added. I had a full dose and can feel it creeping over my hands and feet which arc numbed. Previously she only had part doses. Hearn said it was an emergency medicine to relieve extreme suffering. The doctors would give evidence that they would not have given such medicine. A post mortem revealed .77 gains of arsenic in the body and it was also present in the hair, nails and skin, showing it had been administered for a long period. The post mortem revealed that Mrs Thomas’ body had .85 grains of arsenic. Hearn subsequently disappeared and went to Torquay seeking a situation, wearing spectacles which she had not before worn. Amplifying 'Thfomns’ death, Mr Devlin said Airs Thomas attended a picnic along with Hearn and . Mr Thomas. She was offered sandwiches and took the top one. as would ninetynine persons out of a hundred, whereafter she was ill but recovered subsequently. Hearn cooked a meal of mutton for Mrs Thomas, who afterwards died. The Police Court was adjourned.