CHILD SUFFOCATED

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3610, 8 March 1927, Page 3

CHILD SUFFOCATED

FOUND IN CUPBOARD WITH PLAYMATES. Napier, March 7. A child named Heath Rick Hellier, aged two years and eleven months, the son of Mr. and' Mrs. P. S. Hellier, Ruffles Street, met his death to-day under tragic .circumstances. With two other hoys, Troy and Roderick, aged five and three respectively, young Hellier went out playing 'this morning. At lunchtime the three were missed by their mothers, and a search was instigated'. It was not until 5 o’clock that the father of Troy heard his son call from a temporarily vacant house and just inside of the back porch door he found three hoys imprisoned in a small cupboard, into which' they had crawled, and! allowed the door with a spring catch to close behind them. A doctor was summoned, and revived the two elder boys, but little Hellier was dead having apparently been suffocated. Evidently the three hoys had been shut in tiie cupboard from about 10 o’clock to 5 o’clock. Admittance to the house was gained through a fly-proof door, the latch of which had broken. The smallest hov seeins to have got into the cupboard first, and been followed by the other two.