THE KAIAPOI TRAGEDY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 43, 25 May 1916, Page 2

THE KAIAPOI TRAGEDY.

THE INQUEST CONCLUDED. ' Per Press Association. Christchurch, May 21. | The adjourned inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the murder oi Mr and Mrs J. E. Holland, at Kaiapoi, on May 11, was continued to-day. i Nathan L. Thompson, jnr., a fisherman at Kaiapoi, said he went past Holland’s house at 1U p.m. on May Hth. He heal'd two sounds from the house. The sounds, were peculiar, something like a sneeze. Ho stopped at Holland’s front gate and heard a sound as if a chair had been moved in the house. There was a light inside the window facing the north. He stood at the gate for a moment. A dog barked in Holland’s place. He saw no person at all and went on to his boat. Returning about five on May 12th, be came past Holland’s house again and up Raven Street. 1 be light was still burning in the same window and a dog barked again at wit-

ness. Considerable evidence was given, but no new. facts were adduced. The Coroner said it was one of these extraordinary cases that cropped up occasionally. Apparently there was no motive for the crime, and at present no suspicions were directed towards anv person. He could only retuin an open verdict that each deceased died at Kaiapoi on May 11th, 1916, of shock from hemorrhage of the brain, as a result of injuries inflicted upon them by some person or persons to the Coroner unknown.