A MASTERTON TRAGEDY.
DEMENTED MOTHER ATTACKS HER CHILDREN THEN SUICIDES. Masterton, February 21. A terrible tragedy occurred in Masterton shortly after midnight last night. Some time before 1 o’clock, Mr A. Winzenberg, who resides at the top end of Essex street, was awakened from his sleep by loud and pitiful screams. He got out of bed and went to the door, but could see nobody. The screams continued, and he then saw a boy in his night clothes covered in blood rushing by the house screaming: “Come to mother ! Come to the house !”
Mr Wizenberg ran over to the house opposite, which was occupied by Mrs Gardiner, a widow, and her two children. The front door was open, and on entering the bedroom, where the gas was burning, a terrible spectacle met the gaze of Mr Wizenberg. Lying in the centre of a double bedstead was a little girl, about 11 years of age, named Beryl, whose head was shockingly mutilated. She was in a pool of blood, and quite insensible. Mr Winzenberg, after having summoned the police and a doctor, took the weeping little boy, Jerry, to his own house, where his wounds were bathed. The doctor and the police arrived, and it was shown that the condition of the girl was very serious. There was a terrible gash over her eye, and the front of her skull was fractured. She was taken to the hospital quite unconscious. Her life is despaired of. The boy is suffering from severe contusions on the head, but his condition is not serious.
The bedroom presented a shocking sight. Pillows and bedclothes were covered in blood, and the poker with which the deed is supposed to have been committed was lying on the floor. The mother was not to be found, A search was instituted, and the woman was ultimately discovered, at about 12.15 o’clock, face downwards in a creek. Life was extinct. Her body was taken to the morgue, Mrs Gardiner, who was between thirty and forty years of age, was formerly a resident of Turangarere. Her husband, Mr Hector Gardiner, died some time ago. It is supposed that she committed the deed in an uncontrollable fit of dementia.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19110223.2.27
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 958, 23 February 1911, Page 4
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367A MASTERTON TRAGEDY. Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 958, 23 February 1911, Page 4
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