DEATH OF BABY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26628, 26 November 1947, Page 6

DEATH OF BABY

STRYCHNINE ADMINISTERED ALLEGED CONFESSION BY MOTHER PA. TIMARU, Nov. 25. Edna Mary Price (Mr Robert Stout) was charged in the Magistrate’s Court this morning, before Mr H.'P. Lawry, S.M., that on September H, 1947, at Temuka, she murdered Graham Frederick Price. Mr W. E. Campbell, the Crown Solicitor, conducted the prosecution, and the inquest was conducted simultaneously by the coroner, Mr C W. Wood. Lucy Emily Huddleston, a Plunket nurse, of Temuka, said the baby was a normal healthy child and on the lasi occasion she saw the child it was in good health. Dr A. S. Mclnnes, of Temuka, said the accused came running to his surgery with the child wrapped in a coat. She said she had given the child strychnine. He administered treatment, but the baby was obviously in extremis. He conveyed the child and the mother to the Timaru Public Hospital. Dr K. F. M. Uttley, pathologist at the Timaru Public Hospital, gave evidence of performing a post-mortem examination on the body of the baby, and he gave the cause of death as.strychnine poisoning. The child’s body was healthy. Senior Detective E. M. Thomas said that in reply to his question as to what she had done to her baby, the accused said she had given it strychnine. She said she did not know why she had given the baby poison because she loved her baby and she loved her husband. The accused had said she had taken some strychnine on honey and also swallowed some antiseptic on December 12. She was discharged from the hospital and was arrested, and informed that she would be charged with the murder of her child. When asked if she wished to make any explanation, she made no reply. When charged, the accused pleaded not guilty and was committed for trial at the ndxt session of the Supreme Court in Timaru. \ The coroner reserved his .finding.