DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4417, 20 February 1930, Page 2

DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

HUSBAND FINDS WIFE DEAD • AND BOARDER DYING.

Auckland, February LI)

Mrs. Agnes Beesley, aged 43, was found dead with her throat cut in the living room of her home at 21 I'Deli Avenue, Dominion Road, tonight. At the same time William Hotter, aged 55, a single man who was a friend of the dead woman’s husband and had boarded at the bouse for three or four years, was found in his bedroom with a gaping wound in the neck and chest, ib side him lay a bloodstained razor. He was rushed to the Auckland hospital and at a late hour his condition was extremely serious.

The discovery was made by the dead woman’s husband, John Frederick Beesley under very pathetic circumstances. He got his first job to-day after being unemployed for a considerable time and returned home about (i o'clock. His three children (two girls aged alioul 19 and II respectively and a crippled bov aged about 8) ran down the si reel to meet him. They told him that when they went home from school they found that both the I i'oiil and bade doors were locked and ns they thought their mother must have gone to town they had been playing in the street with oilier children. Beesley left the children with a neighbour and on entering the house through a window found his wife lying dead in a pool of blood on the living room floor. Nearby were some garments and a thimble and needle indicating that she had been sitting on a settee sewing. Beesley then went to the

i mill of the house and found Pot tor lying by the side of the bed.

Potter was still conscious bill could not speak and with his hands feebly made signs to Beesley who called for a neighbour. A doctor was summoned.

It is stated that Potter had been nut- of work for some time. His last position was that of night porter at a hotel in the city.