TRAGEDY AT TIRAU

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 527, 3 December 1928, Page 1

TRAGEDY AT TIRAU

Young Farmer Shoots Brother and Commits Suicide HAD BEEN ILL AND DEPRESSED (Special to THE SUN) PUTARURU, To-day. THE tragic discovery of her young brother lying dead with a bullet wound in his temple and another brother lying mortally wounded some 300 yards from the house, was made by Miss Eileen Chapman, a member of a well-known family living three and a-half miles from Tirau, in the Cambridge district, early on Sunday morning. Apparently the elder of the two shot his brother with a .22 Winchester rifle and then committed suicide with the same weapon.

The names of the two brothers are Stanley Owen Chapman, aged 22, and Bruce Trevor Chapman, aged 16 years and 10 months. On Saturday evening Stanley and his elder sister Eileen had been to the pictures at Putaruru, and on returning at about 11.30 p.m. found the younger brother, who had been to the pictures at Tirau, asleep. Both then retired for the night. At about twenty minutes past two Eileen was awakened by a noise and heard footsteps on the back verandah, where the boys’ room is situated. Knowing that her elder brother had not been sleeping well for some weeks past, she called him. Getting no response, she then got up, and going to the boys’ room found her younger

3 brother lying in bed bleeding profusely from a wound in the side of the head above the ear, apparently having been shot in his sleep. There was no sign of her elder brother. SEARCH FOR BROTHER The family then aroused several neighbours and Dr. S. L. Haslett, of Putaruru was summoned. Malcolm Coulrough, a neighbour, was soon on the scene and he went with the sister to a creek at the back of the farm, about a quarter of a mile away, to look for Stanley. Near a bridge they heard groans and they then found Stanley lying on his back with a Winchester rifle between his legs, aid a bullet wound in his forehead. Deceased was then alive, but barely conscious. In the meantime Dr. Haslett had arrived at the farm, hut the younger brother died shortly after his arrival. The elder brother was also brought to the house, but he died at about 5.45 a.m. Neither he nor his brother made any statement concerning the tragedy. HAD NERVOUS BREAKDOWN It appears that Stanley had been ill and depressed for some time, having had two previous nervous breakdowns. Owing to the ill-health of his father he had managed the farm for some time, and had contracted poison in his system through using a poison for destroying rabbits. During the last few weeks he had suffered greatly from insomnia, and was to have gone away for a prolonged holiday at an early date. The Chapman family own a sheep farm of 1,100 acres, and came from Taranaki just over four years ago. They were of a reserved disposition, but well-respected and in good circumstances. The household consists of Thomas Chapman, his wife, two sons and five daughters, three of whom are living at home. INQUEST ADJOURNED The inquest was opened at Putaruru this morning before Mr. T. F. Snell, J.P., acting-coroner, and a jury of four After evidence of identification had been given by Guy Wellnda Seton, a sheep-farmer on an adjoining fai;m, the inquest was adjourned sine die, at the request of Sergeant Hogan, of Rotorua.