SKULL AS MUTE WITNESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 794, 15 October 1929, Page 1

SKULL AS MUTE WITNESS

Grim Tragedy at Himatangi DOCTOR’S STARTLING EVIDENCE 'x Shot Fired at Point-Blank (Special to THE SUN) FOXTON, Today. RECENTLY the curtain was rung up on a grim drama of death and mystery when a Maori shepherd found the smoking ruins of a whare in the Himatangi sandhills. Death and tragedy were revealed when the remains of human bodies were found among the ashes and it was suspected that the eight inmates of the house, the Wright family of six and Mr. J. B. Westlake, the owner of the property, and a farmhand named Thompson, had perished. Then came the discovery of a hole and some lead in the skull of one of the victims and suspicions that there had been foul play in the house before the fire broke out were aroused, and the final scene in the drama was enacted in the little courthouse at Foxton today when the inquest, previously adjourned to allow the police to conduct investigations, was resumed before the coroner, Mr. A. Fraser.

■ Important medical evidence regarding the hole in the skull was given by Dr. Cyril King, of Paimerston North. On the evening of September 7 last, he jaid, he had examined portions of the I nones, which had been subjected to intense heat. He had been able to re- | construct from the bones the greater part of a human cranium. The breaki In* of the skull was attributable to the i intense heat. From the general thickness of the bones and the prominence of the muscular attachments he was of the opinion that the skull was that of an adult male. He had been Informed that these bones had been found in the vicinity of Wright’s bedroom. The reconstruction of the skull rewealed a round hole at the base of the skull, and the edges of this hole were bevelled for half of its circumference. The edge of the hole was stained yellow. and there was a minute piece of Jetd attached to the bony rim. Lying in the hollow of the skull was an Irregular mass of lead, also stained yellow, as was an underlying bone at that point. One and a-half inches behind this point were two similar but much smaller spots of yellow staining, the centre of which were unstained where apparently there had been two pieces of lead. The main mass of lead was long and narrow in its general outline and apparently was a grapelike cluster of small round pieces fused together by the action of heat. He would say, but could not swear to it, that it was a cluster of lead shot fused together by the action of heat. In his opinion the hole had been caused by a mieeile travelling at a very high velocity, as there was no evidence of recording fractures of the skull. From the outer aspect of the hole, h« considered, from the very fragile state of the bones and the perfect rounding of the hole, that such an injury must have been received before the latter had Leen subjected to such great heat. The inner edge of the hole was in an exact parallel with (he effects of a gunshot wound, and ’ie bevelling gave the direction of ho missile from its point of entry at 1 -p hole down to the base of the stall]. It would be impossible for such a snnshot wound to have been selfinflicted, and the wound must have been received when the victim was jying or stooping. If the wound had wen caused by a shotgun the gun raust have been fired almost at pointblank range. hr. King also gave medical evidence regarding the other victims. He h»d made a post mortem examination a company with Dr. Wyllie and Defective Russell of those bodies found n the bedroom. After examination ? e had their description furnished mm. and he would say that they were hose of the Wrights’ three children, "’Tin, aged eight, Joyce, aged nine, Aileen, aged six years. There ere no marks of violence on any of toe bodies. .. was then given regarding ] * body found in the living room, j inch was in a fair state of preserva- i on. This body, he would say, was | of an adult male. It was slightly 1 in if n Up ’ and 11 had been impossible And any evidence of head injuries, careful examination of the body had ought to light no signs of poison. _,, e body, from the description sup--11 wou * d say to be that of v re ®ains found near the Wrights’ th ‘ OOm ’ by a cot, seemed likely, from th ’ r im maturity, to be those of the e-year-old child, Prudence. the other human remains in j. , same room were found strips of | ’ apparent ly corset ribs. These | e the remains associated with the I bomf ra L ed Portions of an arm to th saoulder blade and thigh found j of « 9 rema * ns were obviously those hr th adult> *be sex being established e skull already referred to. IDENTIFICATION OF BODIES jJ u reply to a question by Seniorhas C fi IVe QhFke, witness said that he Identified seven bodies, four chill*tte and *bree adults, one of the hiem 8 , ribs a PP a rently being those of toat™th 11 had been easy to discover there were seven bodies as cer>mon° neS were clearly present. From h. ng the loose bones presumed to •>ol»t j € * ongec * to Mrs. Wright were b r ted the other adult human vertejk an< l other bones. They had ail subjected to an extreme degree burti 9 *! 1 an d, the ligaments being htsdfi away > they were found separ- , ilixhi Oln one an °ther and extremely [ r,aw * Examination proved these j

vertebrae beyond doubt to be lumbra vertebrae. These benes had established beyond any, doubt that a fourth adult had died in the house. A portion of a skull produced had been found among the remains of the eight individuals. He was of the opinion that it was a portion of a male skull. There was no evidence of intentional violence and the piece of skull was too small to form any idea of the size of the head of the individual to whom it belonged. There was not sufficient of the remains of either of the two skulls, the one produced in court and the one perforated, to say to which individual it belonged. Comparison as to their relative sizes gave conflicting results. They were, however, both male skulls. He would say that all the bones he had examined had belonged to people recently living and there was nothing to show that they had not all been subjected to intense heat at the same time. This completed Dr. King’s evidence. Evidence of the finding of the bodies was given by Dr. Wyllie, of Foxton. who was on the scene shortly after the tragedy had been discovered. A search of the ruins had been made and the remains of three adults and two children had been found. The body of a third child was later found. The body of what he could with certainty say was that of an adult male of large size had been found in the living-room five or six feet from the door. This body had been clothed in a shirt above which were evidences of a vest. There were also evidences of a coat or blanket in the bedroom of the Wright children in the south-west portion of the building. SEARCH OF ASHES The remains of the three children had been found in the south-east portion of the ruins, where there were also two obviously adult bodies lying on their backs. One of these had been associated with the corset, ribs, hooks and eyes, and the other was certainly that of a male. Portion of the skull of the male body showed the typical appearance of a gunshot wound and portions of some metal, apparently lead, adhered to the inside. He had drawn the attention of the police to this. He had made a search of the ashes round these two bodies and had found two pairs of knee-bones, but nothing else definite, either of the sex or the number of persons. He had then examined all the skulls carefully as they lay. “I can only say,” he said, “that there were no signs of violence on the remains in these two rooms.” The bones in the Wright bedroom had been more extensively destroyed, but in the frontal bones and base of skulls violence had not been in evidence, except on the one with the hole. He had subsequently made an examination of the hole and it was possible that it had been made by a shotgun fired at a very short range. “I consider it very unlikely that these would have been old bones, which would have burned away completely in that draught,” said Dr. Wyllie, dealing with the remains in the upright bedroom. He was of the opinion that it was a part of a male skull which was found alongside the female body. There was no evidence of violence, and it could not be from the same skull as the one with the perforation. There was no doubt whatever that there were remains of eight individuals and he was satisfied in his own mind that they had all been living recently. This completed the medical evidence and the court adjourned for lunch.