DEATH IN A CUPBOARD.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 8 March 1927, Page 5

DEATH IN A CUPBOARD.

Press Association.)'

i BABY BOY'S FATAL ADVENTURE.

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NAPIER, Last Night. A chjld named Heath Rick Hellier aged two years and ele'ven months, a son of Mr and Mrs P. S. Hellier, Raffles street, met his death to-day under tragic circumstances. With two other boys Troy and Roderick, aged five and three respectively, young Hellier went out pla3ung this morning. At lunch time the three were missed by their mothers and a seanch was instigated. It was not till 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 the three boys 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 older boys but little Hellier was dead, having apparently heen suffocated. Evidently the three hoys had heen shut in the cupboard from about 16 o'clock to 5 o'cloick. Admittance to the house was gained through a fly-proof door, the latch of which had been broken. The smallest boy seems to have got into the cupboard first followed by the other two.