POISONED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 16, 11 September 1931, Page 4

POISONED

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF SYDNEY WOMAN POLICE INVESTIGATING SYDNEY, Sept. 2. " A cripple from birth, although able to walk with difficulty and notahly pret;y and popular among a wide circle of acquaintances in the city, wlfere she was employed as a manicurist hy a big firm, Mrs. Jessie Martha Hunt, 31, died at the Royal Princo Alfred Hospital reeently in mysterious circumstances. Unconscious for two days, she is stated to have been suffering from the effects of a drug, but the •polihe are puzzled how it came to he administered. She lived in a Maeleay-street flat with her mother, and is described by her friends as having been a particularly bright and friendly type of woman. Other occupants of the flats told how devoted were mother and daughter to each other, and the husband, although obliged to live at his place of employment, was a regular visitor to the home and was on the most aifectionate terms with his wife and her mother. Mrs. Hunt, who had occupied a ground floor flat for three months, took Wednesday afternoon off to enjoy a walk in the sunshine. She returned home tired, but in good spirits, and retired to bed early. Her mother took her tea in, and ahout 10 o'cloclc Mrs. Hunt asked for an orange. ' Her brother, after obtaining one for her, went to bed, and hac; no occasion for alai'm until 6 o'clock next' morning, when his mother took in a cup of tea. She was unable to awaken , her daughter, and called a doctor, but all efforts failed to arouse the young woman, and abcut 7 p.m. she was taken to the hospital by the Central Ambulance, as an ordinary transport case. She died at 1.30 p.m. yesterday, apparently from the effects of an overdose of a sleeping draught. Police failed to find any trace of narcotics in her flat. Police and hospital authorities are maintaining 'the greatest secrecy about the tragedy. Mrs. Hunt had been under 13 operations for her deformity, without success.