VERDICT OF SUICIDE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2051, 6 November 1919, Page 3

VERDICT OF SUICIDE.

MRS. DIXON’S DEATH. .

The adjourned inquest touching the-death of Florence May Dixon was concluded at Palmerston on Tuesday, before Mr A. J. Graham, J.P., and a jury. Evidence was given by Douglas Belt, medical practitioner, who stated he had held a-post mortem examination on the body of deceased. The body was that of a well-nourished woman, and showed no external marks, of violence. The contents of ‘the stomach he put in a sealed jar and sent to the police. A towel on which there were some crystals was also scaled in a jar and sent to the police. There was no staining in the mouth of deceased.

Sergeant Fitzpatrick deposed that he had searched the bedroom for poison or vessels containing poison, but had failed to find any. He searched all the rooms in the house next morning, and again failed to find any trace of poison. On Tuesday he had searched the cordial factory owned by deceased’s husband, and had found a drum containing sheep dip used in the factory, as a disinfectant The sergeant then read a report from the Dominion Analyst, which staled that he had' examined the contents of both jars delivered to him. In one he had found arsenic in large quantities, and a small amount of carbolic acid. The presence of both arsenic and carbolic acid suggested the probability of a sheep dip having been taken, as some sheep dips contained both poisons.

Mr Graham, in outlining the facts to the jury, pointed out-that deceased had said “good-bye” to her child, and that a poison like sheep dip could not lie administered by anyone else, as deceased would have refused it. All the evidence pointed to deceased having committed suicide. He also pointed out that deceased had access to the factory.

The jury agreed without leaving the court, and returned a verdict that deceased committed suicide by drinking shoe]) dip, a preparation containing arsenic.