GHASTLY TRAGEDY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 1

GHASTLY TRAGEDY

Schoolmaster Kills Wife With Axe and then Drowns Himself

NOTE LEFT IN MILK CAN

(Special to THE SUE) CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. WHILE his five young- children slept undisturbed in adjoining rooms, William Alexander Foster, first assistant master at the Papanui School, killed his wife with an axe as she lay in bed, and then drowned himself in the bath in the small hours of this morning. The milkman found a note in the billy on the front-door “ reat * : "For God’s sake go for the police immediately.

■POSTER'S children, whose ages range from two years to eight, were up and dressed unconscious of the terrible happening. In a double bed in the main bedworn, which is at the back of the house, Mrs. Foster, a slight, pretty woman, lay face downwards in the pillows, her skull riven, obviously by one blow from an axe. Perhaps she h»d been asleep when the blow was struck. There was no indication of a straggle. Dead in Bath Foster lay face downward in the bath, which was filled with water. Tied on the back of his neck was a large and heavy boot, which weighed his head down. He was attired in a shirt, trousers and socks. Propped against the wall of the bathroom was an axe, its blade covered with blood. It was evidently with this that Foster had brutally attacked his wife. Nearby was a half-opened razor, as though the dead man, before deciding to drown himselt, had handled it with the idea of cutting his throat. So far as is known the Fosters lived on terms of affection, and there is no suggestion that Foster was jealous of his wife. She was at the pictures last evening. Foster motored her to the home of a friend, who accompanied them. He took the children with him and returned to the house and apparently put them to bed about 10 o’cloQk. Messrs. J. J. Hall and Leslie Gibbs, who had been to lodge, called, and later, Mrs. Foster returned. “I know no reason or trouble that Foster was in which would cause him to kill himself fuid his wife,” said Mr.

Hall to a “Sun” reporter to-day. “Foster had been in a motor-car accident, and had to find an amount of money in connection with that, but he appeared to have got over that worry.” Left Letter for Friend The conversation last evening was merely on ordinary affairs. We talked about radio a good deal,” said Mr. Hall, “that being a subject in which

we were interested. Then Foster talked a good deal of his work in preparing the boys at his school in the proficiency examination. Perhaps he had been doing too much, and that turned his brain. “When we left about half-past twelve Mrs. Foster was still up.” In the house this morning was a letter for Mr. Hail, who was not prepared to divulge the contents. The Fosters were married in England. The dead man, who was about 36 years of age, had been A teacher since 1909, and had been at Papanui for 18 months, prior to which he taught for four years in Samoa. He was organist at the Papanui Anglican Church. Worried by Lodge Inquiry Foster is understood to have been worried by an inquiry held by the lodge of which he was a member, but this inquiry had nothing to do with finance. He had not enjoyed good health for some time past and was understood to be suffering from the results of being gassed during the war. He took a very active part in the Boy Scout movement shortly after it was inaugurated in Christchurch. He was a very popular master at the school, both among the staff and pupils.