INVERCARGILL TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 372, 14 April 1908, Page 2

INVERCARGILL TRAGEDY.

Another Victim—The Baby Dies. Invercargile, April 13. Phyllis Baxter, one of the young children of the merchant Baxter, shows a slight improvement, and at times is conscious. The baby died on Sunday afternoon. Invercargill has supplied ghastly tragedies in the past, but the fearful butchery of last Tuesday night, particulars of which have appeared in these columns, eclipses them all. Of course there is nothing beyond circumstantial evidence, but the facts can be plainly read. The facts are that James Reid Baxter, his wife, and five children retired to bed on Tuesday evening in the ordinary manner, the interior of their bedrooms showing that the domestic duties of washing, ironing, and darning had been occuping the attention of an obviously careful housewife during the evening. In the front room were two little boys in a double bed. In the room behind them were a daughter and a two-year old boy, and across the passage were Mr and Mrs Baxter and a six-weeks-old baby. During the night the father had evidently arisen, armed himself with a stove scraper, probably provided himself with a light, and proceeded to systematically butcher the entire family. There had been no disturbance. The children apparently never awoke. They were found lying in the morning in the attitude of sleep, with faces unmarked save where they had lain in blood. But on the foreheads and skulls were the horrible wounds that had been inflicted with such dreadful precision. Having completed his work, the father appears to have retired to the bath-room with a single-barrelled breech - loading shotgun. He locked the door, filled the bath with water, sat on the edge of the bath, and shot himself in the head with No. 4 shot. The trunk fell back into water. The absence of movement about the house In the morning attracted the attention of a neighbour, who looked through a window, and ran to the nearest telephone. Mr Baxter was ase edsman and nurseryman, who only came to Invercargill abbut 12 months ago. There is nothing to. account for the crime. Financially he was in a more than comfortable position and far as can be learned his manner and conduct have never betrayed signs of mental peculiarity. It is known that he had just had an attack of influenza, followed by British cholera, and lately he had not been in a good state of health.