DETERMINED SUICIDE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1141, 7 September 1882, Page 2

DETERMINED SUICIDE.

[Coroner: M. Price, Esq., R.M.] The inquest on Mrs. Fanny Lewis, who was discovered hanging in an outhouse adjacent to a cottage occupied by herself and husband, at Te Hapera, about half-a-mile from the residence of Mr AV. L. Rees, on Tuesday afternoon, was not concluded when we went to press yesterday. The remainder of the evidence is as follows :— John Thomas Lewis, continued : She only drank about half a teacupful of beer yesterday. Her fits of depression have been variable and undefinable. I think I tied the knot in the rope produced in Auckland, but am not certain.

John Baldwin, sworn, deposed : I am in the employment of Mr Rees, at Te Hapera. I identify the body as that of Mrs. Lewis, whom I have known about three or four months. I have been in the Lewises’ house every day since they have been living here. She was always predisposed to melancholy and depression of spirits. I cannot say the cause of that depression, but she frequently complained of ill-health and debility. She has frequently said she wished she was dead ; and about a week ago, when she saw the funeral of a deceased woman passing up the road, she said she wished it was her turn. She used to fret a great deal after her Victorian home. She was dissatisfied with her present home. She lived on averagely happy terms with her husband. She was of a complaining temperament. I never knew them to fight, or anything of that sort. 1 came in and had a cup of tea with her yesterday morning, when she seemed quite cheerful. She said nothing then about going to town. The next time I saw her was after Lewis came to the Hapera, when he called loudly for me by name, about 5.30 p.m. I should say. I asked him what he wanted, and he said, “ Mrs. Lewis has hung herself, what shall Ido ?” I advised him to run for the Doctor and the Police, and I came over to the house directly. Mrs. Leads was lying on her back ; water had evidently been poured over her face ; a tomahawk and a ch’sel were lying near her, and a piece of rope, which had been cut, was around her neck. I identify the rope produced as the piece which I picked out of her neck; it was embedded deeply in the flesh. She was quite warm aud had evidently not been long dead. There was a corresponding piece of rope round a beam which had e\ ideutly formed port-on of that round the neeb. A chair was at her feet and a wooden case laid alongside of it. Her body was lying under the beam at right angles to it. I felt her pulse and her heart and satisfied myself that life was extinct. At a rough guess I should think this was about 5.45 p. m. There was nothing to cause any suspicion of foul play. The face was very calm aud placid, aud that seemed a little odd to me in comparison with previous cases of strangulation which had come under my notice. I opened the mor th and there was no froth, aud no discolouration of the tongue. Up to 11 o’clock p.m. last night the beat had not left the body. Lewis arrived some ten minutes after I did. When Mr Rees aud Mrs Rees arrived I left. The woman had conveyed to me an impression long ago that she should some day destroy herself.

Flora Jackson, sworn, deposed : I identify the body as that of Mrs Lewis, whom I knew in life since the Bth of June last. lam in Dr. Pollen’s employ. I have had frequent opportunities of seeing her. During ten days immediately preceding her death I was living in the house with her. Sbe was in a very melancholy state ; she was always brooding aud low-spirited, saying she wished herself dead. Sbe once said, “If I ever commit suicide, you will tell them I was melancholy mad.” This was some time last week. She had not been accustomed to roughing it in her previous domestic life aud I think that preyed on her mind. Her words were an indirect implication of a suicidal intention. [This witness complained of the hardship of being dragged from Gisborne at a special expense without any reimbursement.—Mr Price said he regretted the circumstance but he had no power to reimburse witnesses in these matters,—Miss Jackson thanked the Coroner and withdrew. ]

Alfred John Leggatt, after being sworn, deposed : I am a duly qualified and registered medical practitioner, residing iu Gisborne. I have seen the corpse now in the next room. I was requested about 5.30 p.m. yesterday evening, by Sergeant Bullen, to come with him to Te Hapera aud see a woman who was reported to have hung herself. I arrived here shortly before 6 o’clock p.m., and saw the deceased, wb o now lies dead in the next room, laying in the outhouse on her back ; li<e was completely extinct. The body was perfectly cold, and bore a deeply indented mark, such as would be caused by such a rope as the one produced, round the neck. On moving the body I found that the cervical vertebrae were dislocated. The face was calm and placid, aud death must have been instantaneous. There was no other mark of violence about the body. Death arose from dislocation of the cervical vertebrae by hanging. There is another result of death by hanging which is suffocation, but this was dislocation of the cervical vertebrae'; the two are different and easily distinguishable. The absence of froth from the mouth and the placid state of the countenance afford the evidence of the difference. There is no possibility of distinguishing between suicidal and homicidal hanging. Dislocation is not a common feature in suicidal hanging, which generally has its results in suffocation from the fact of the knot being badly adjusted, In homicidal hanging there are generally considerable marks of violence left on the body, which is not the case iu this instance. I have carefully examined the body and find no marks which would arouse susSicion of violence in my mind. I have no oubt that death was produced by hanging. Cross-examined by the Jury: The body was so perfectly cold that it must have been dead for at least three hours, but rigor mortis would not ensue until about six hours subsequent to death. Mr Baldwin not being a medical man may have been misled by appearances as regards this. The mark of the knot was under the left ear.

The Coroner said he would not detain the jury long. There were two aspects to consider in cases of suicide—a sound or unsound state of mind; the former would entail a verdict oifelo de se, aud the latter a verdict of “ unsound mind.” It was for the jury to decide on these two points. The Jury returned a verdict “That the deceased killed herself, whilst in a state of unsound mind, by hanging. ”