FIVE HOURS TERROR

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 81, 27 June 1927, Page 1

FIVE HOURS TERROR

Two Girls’ Fearful Ordeal in House of Grim Tragedy YOUNG COUPLE’S FATE By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. THE community was shocked yesterday by the discovery of a double domestic tragedy in a house at the corner of Salisbury and Manchester Streets.. . Frederock Charles Davis, a naval reservist, aged 38, is believed to have cut the throat of his 19-year-old wife, Edith May Davis, and then committed suicide.

npHE circumstances of the crime are -A remarkable. Two girls, aged IS and 19 respectively, lay in their beds for nearly five hours, beside themselves with mortal fear in the knowledge that a crime had been committed under the roof which sheltered them. They feared to guess- what might confront them on opening the door leading into the long dark hallway, so they remained in bed until daybreak. 4 Vera Wilson, aged 18, a sister of Mrs. Davis, and Dorothy Finney, aged 19, slept in the same room. The Davis’s reached home about 11.30 on Saturday night, and Mrs. Davis entered the room occupied by her sister. “Fred has said that Monday will be my last night on earth,” Mrs. Davis said, and laughed oft' the idea. When she opened the bedroom door to go back to her own room, Davis moved off down the passage as though he had been listening at the door to his wife’s remarks to her sister. Davis wrote a letter to his own sister, who also lives in Christchurch, and went out to post it about midnight. Silence prevailed in the house after his return, and the girls went to sleep, little guessing that a tragedy was impending in the front bedroom. • At 2 a.m. the stillness was broken by a short, piercing scream. Then came silence again. The cry wakened Miss Finney, who shook her companion and said, “Fred is murdering May.” Miss Wilson considered that the husband and wife were having an argument, and both listened. Then to their horror they heard the man groping his way barefooted down the passage past their door and into the scullery. From the scullery came groans, and then silence once more. A NIGHT OF TERROR Frightened almost speechless, both girls remained in bed and the minutes grew into hours. About three hours later the unchecked fumes of gas began to fill the

house, and the bedroom of the girls became unbearable, and one’ of them opened the window. At the first sign grey dawn. At 7 a.m. both girls, wearing overcoats over their nightdresses, climbed through their window and went out to call help. Neighbours found Mrs. Davis lying in bed with her throat gashed terribly. The bed clothes were partly off her, and there was much blood on the bed. A blood-spattered pillow lay on the floor at the foot of the bed. Folded up was a razor covered with blood. On the floor lay an evening dress, and a pair of silvered evening shoes. The gas fumes were very strong, and in the scullery, kneeling in a pool of blood, Davis was found with his head close to the gas stove, the position of the tubing suggesting that he had had it in his mouth.

Those who made the discovery were amazed to hear the cry of a baby, although the gas fumes were almost unbearable for an adult. The Davis’s three-months-old baby girl was crying in a perambulator in the corner between the bed and the wall. The handle was blood-coated, as though it had been gripped by Davis after his terrible crime, but

the baby was not molested. DAVIS A NAVAL RESERVIST

Davis had been married a little over a year and, with his wife, had occupied the hquse for only two months. He arrived in New Zealand two years ago and was employed as a telegraph linesman. He had served his time in the Royal Navy, and was with the submarines during the war, and gained a distinguished service medal.

A week ago he returned from Auckland, where he had been doing some twin of naval service training. Mrs. Davis was a pretty, bright girl, and was apparently very happy in her married life. Her husband was very jealous of her. In a box in an empty room, Davis had left his effects packed up.