"JUST FINISHED THEM"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 341, 30 September 1932, Page 5

"JUST FINISHED THEM"

(Press Assn. — I

TARANAKI MURDER ALLEGED STATEMENT BY THE ACCUSED FATHER CHILDREN WERE HUNGRY

By Telegraph — Copyright)

New Plymouth, Thursday. Police evidence concerning the tragic happenings early on the morning of September 15, when Lilian Violet Jepson, aged 37 years and her son aged 18 moriths, wGr& found hattered to death in their beds, and their 12 year old son, Rschard Cedric, was so severely injured that he died in hospital, was given at the inquest and preliminary hearimg of the murder charge "to-day. Hubert Cedric Jepson, husband and father, charged with the murder of the three, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial, and the inquest was adjourned. According to the evidence of Constable Mitchell, Jepson walked into th© police station at 6.30 a.m. and said that he had just killed his wife and "kids." Jepson, the constable said, had told him he had been unemployed for 18 months and he was in debt all over the place. His wife and children were hungry, "so I finished it off." He allegedly told the constable that he killed them with a tomaliawk. He had meant to do it before and had heen thinking about it. He could not have killed them had they not been in bed. He meant to kill himself also, but he had not the "guts." His wife was the best wife a man ever had. He gave the constable the keys of the house which had heen loeked. He said that he had been twice wounded at the war. The constable told of finding the woman and the eldest child in bed and terribly battered. The infant was still breathing. An axe was found in the woodshed. Medical evidence was that ihe wounds might have heen causecl hy that weapon.