TARANAKI TRAGEDY

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3807, 19 June 1928, Page 3

TARANAKI TRAGEDY

JOTHER AND DAUGHTER SHOT

New Plymouth, Last Night. The home of Percy 11. Surrey, a well known Iluirangi farmer, was the scene of a shocking tragedy early yesterday morning under circumstances that suggest an act of dementia on the part of the elder

woman. Air. Surrey’s wife, Eleanor Emma Surrey, aged 49, and her daughter, Beryl Minnie Surrey, aged 19, were found dead in a locked bedroom shot through the breast with a sporting rifle. It is stated that for a year or more Mrs. Surrey has been constantly under the care of a doctor, suffering chiefly from inability to sleep. Though the suffering was not noticed to be particularly accentuated on the day prior to the tragedy, she was known to have been considerably agitated in mind during the last month or so over the effects of insomnia. The family lived, as a rule, on most affectionate terms, and it is therefore surmised that the tragic double fatality could only have been the outcome of the working of an unbalanced mind. No indication of what the fatal night was to bring was given on Sunday evening. Mr. Surrey, who himself has been more or less an invalid for three years, retired to bed early, and was soon followed !)3 t the household, consisting of his wife, his daughter, and his two sons. About 7.30 p.m. Mrs. Surrey took her husband a glass of water, appearing at the time in a normal state of health and mind. It was the last time he saw her a live. Owing to the conditions of their health she did not sleep in the same room as he, but with her daughter in another room. The women occupied separate beds. At about 1.30 Surrey was awakened by what seemed the sound of a dull thud, and the noise of a woman in distress. On investigating, lie found that the door of the room occupied by his wife and daughter was locked. . Access to the room was gained by going out on to the verandah and getting through a window. A candle was still burning on the dressing table and an open book and spectacles were lying on Mrs. Surrey’s bed. The daughter was breathing when Mr. Surrey entered the room, but expired almost immediately. Mrs. Surrey was dead on the arrival of the doctor who could only pronounce life extinct. The shot gun found in Mrs. Surrey’s room belonged to her son, and was kept in another part of the home.