TRIPLE TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3688, 8 September 1927, Page 2

TRIPLE TRAGEDY.

MOTHER POISONS HERSELF AND TWO DAUGHTERS. Pukekohe, September 7. A, terrible tragedy occurred yesterday.afternoon at Yate’s farm at Waiau, Karika, 14 miles from Pukekohe. The victims were Mrs. Blackwell, and her two daughters, Marjorie, aged 13 years, and Muriel, aged 12 years. Death is alleged to have been due to strychnine poisoning. The husband and father, 11. ' Blackwell, who is employed as a farm ploughman, was at Papakura with a mob of sheep. The victims and a six-year-old boy, Gordon Blackwell, had lunch, the latter eating blanc mange, while the victims partook of apricots and later became violently ill. The boy cleared his stomach of the food and becoming alarmed at the condition of his mother and sisters, went to the nearest telephone and summoned Dr. Page, from Papakura, who, upon arrival, found the mother and one daughter dead, and the other in convulsions. Subsequently she succumbed. The police hurried to the scene last night and found the -house spick and span, with no dirty dishes about, the mother on a couch and the two girls side by side beside the bed, fully clothed. There was no evidence of a struggle. Detectives took charge to-day and conveyed the. bodies to Auckland.