SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2430, 18 May 1922, Page 3

SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

WOMAN DROWNS HERSELF AND FOUIj CHILDREN. HUSBAND’S AWFUL DISCOVERY. Auckland, Tnesday. James Arthur Thornton, residing in Garner-road, Epsom, on returning home from his work in the city about 10 o’clock on Tuesday night found his wife and four children —a boy seven years of age, a girl of four years, a boy of two years and an inf-ant of six months—drowned in a bath. ‘ ) Thornton is a foreman cleaner ori the railway. He left his wife and children at home shortly after midday on Tuesday, his wife and family being in ordinary health and spirits. Returning home after work he found both the front and back doors locked, and the gas alight in the breakfast room. Getting no response to his knocking, he burst open the front door and found his wife naked in the bath with the infant child on her breast. Both \|ere dead, and the bath was empty of water, probably through the woman’s feet dislodging the plug.

Ascertaining that life was extinct, Thornton looked for the other three children, and found them all dead in bed in a bedroom facing the bathroom. Each body was wrapped in a separate sheet, the hair being saturate/! with water and froth oozing from the mouths. The theory is that the mother stripped each child and drowned it in the bath, wrapped it in a sheet and laid the body on the bed -and pulled the bedclothes over it.

There were no signs of violence on the bodies. . ' Within about ten irfinutes of his arrival home and the awful discovery, Thornton aroused the neighbours with his terrible story. The police were communicated with and a doctor was called. Most of the wife’s clothing was found hung over the door of the bathroom, and the clothing of the children was lying on a table in the kitchen.

Apparently the last any of the neighbours saw of the family was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The house is a five-roomed dwelling, and was owned by Mrs Thornton. It is well furnished and spotlessly clean. Everything is in order, and there is nothing to indicate in the least degree that there had been any struggle or disturbance preceding the tragedy. EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST. Auckland, May Ifi. The inquest on the victims of the Epsom tragedy was opened before Mr Poynton this afternoon. James Thornton, husband of the deceased woman, said he was married nine years ago. His wife, was born in Donegal, Ireland, and had been in New Zealand lfi years. She usually had good health. Witness last saw his wife at 12.30 p.ni. yesterday; All the children were there then. She appeared in her usual health. There was- no difference at all. One tiling struck him as unusual. She said: “Do you love me, dad?” He said: “Yes, whni makes you think that?” She then said: “You love the children too?” Witness said: “Why do you say that?” Deceased said: “Oh, I just want to know.”’ He said: “Are yon in good health, mother?” and she replied, “Yes, I’ve neyer felt better." Witness returned at 9.45 p.m. The inquest was adjourned.