Attacked and Buried Alive

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 468, 25 September 1928, Page 1

Attacked and Buried Alive

ELDERLY PAIR’S FATE Bodies Dragged to a Shallow Hole REVELATIONS AT INQUEST (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Received 11.10 a.in.. LONDON, Sunday. THE medical evidence at the inquest on Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Kirby, who were murdered, and whose bodies were found in a shallow hole, indicated that both were buried alive while they were insensible, death occurring from eight to 20 hours prior to exhumation.

The man had several wounds on his head, and scratches on his back indicated that he had been dragged by the feet. Marks on the woman’s throat pointed to strangulation, while scratches on her face showed that she had been dragged a short distance. Her head bore large abrasions. Grit in her lungs and at the bronchial point of the man’s windpipe led to the conclusion that both gasped for breath after burial.

A thousand thronged the court when Conlin was charged with the murder of the Kirbys. He was remanded for

eight days. He swooned and six constables carried him to his cell.

The police on Sunday arrested Charles William Conlin, aged 22, an ex-soldier, on a charge of being implicated in the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Kirby. He is a grandson of the slain woman by her first marriage. The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Kirby, of Old Thornaby Green, were found by Mrs. Stead, of Norton, near Stockton-on-Tees, while she was seeking some soil for her plants. Mrs. Stead says she noticed a mound in a lonely lane. A wrist and a coat sleeve were protruding. She informed her son-in-law. The police exhumed the bodies. Mr. Kirby had been wounded in the head and the wound was still bleeding His wife apparently had been strangled. Arl entry to Mr. Kirby’s locked house was forced by the police They ascertained that the couple had been murdered' there and then conveyed a distance of three miles to the burial place, apparently in a car which was garaged on the premises.