SHOCKING SUICIDE

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1074, 16 May 1882, Page 4

SHOCKING SUICIDE

A shocking discovery has been made in a garden at Higher Broughton, Mandtester. At the part known as the Cliff there are a number of large houses having gardens sloping down to the river Irwell, and one afternoon a young girl, while walking in one of the gardens, saw lying in the shrubbery of the adjoining grounds a dead body, which proved to be that of a voung man named Harry Skelton, who occupied one of the houses on the Cliff, and who has been missing for the last ten days. In the deceased’s mouth and tightly clenched by the teeth, was a discharged pistol : one of the hands grasped an empty tumbler ; and half the face had been blown away by the shot from the pistol, which, there is no doubt, had been fired by the deceased. The body was removed to deceased’s house, and information given to the police, who are now collecting evidence for the inquest. The youngjman, who was a partner in the firm of Skelton and Sons, Deansgate, Manchester, oil and tallow merchants, lost his father (the bead of the firm) last July, and his mother only a few weeks ago, and it is supposed that the latter event affected his mind. He was greatly depressed after the death of his mother ; and since last Thursday week he had not been heard of. His friends had made diligent but unfruitful inquiries as to his whereabouts. The body was found in the garden next to that of his own house, and it is supposed that it has been lying there •since the day of deceased’s disappearance.