SUSPICIOUS DEATH.
ImjUJUST ON A I'UULU.'A.X'S WIFE.
MIiNSATIOiNAL DKVEIjOI'JI UNT>S,
Per Press Association. Duuedin, Last .Night, Jiie adjourned inquest touching thdeath of Catherine Cornish, said to ban: louml «l««l in a passage of the btiiiing .Hotel 011 Friday afternoon, was l'cMuned before Air. Alexander K. Farijuhiii- (Acting-Coroner) and a jury of six to-day. inspector O'iJrieii .conducted tlie proceatings on behalf of the polite, and Air, irvin Watched the ease on behalf of It. loruirth, licensee of the hotel. llicbard Coriiish said he found his «'iin <iu Friday afternoon lying on her I lace in a passage. She was dead, and the body was cold, lie carried the Oody lo a bed, and then telegraphed to Dr. Limiett, ol lialelutha, and awaited his anna] Jle Inul uo idea how long dor'i snu ' I " dead - lle lwd not u . intL he Went to bed at 10.15 p.m. bn." 1, ;'r-, JJet • MSe,l uot lip, but had been going about all thai
1.0 the Inspector— Jly wife was i,i the »it.ng-room adjoining the bedroom on i liursday night. ;Slio was laying fully dressed on the sofa. 1 covered her with ii ctmjile ol rugs and wtnl lo bed. Afv "lie was the worse for drink when 'l covered hej- uj,. J bad asked her early in the evening not to take anything; she was half asleep at the time. I.wn g not ilisturlied Jurmg the night, and had no Idea what time I woke up on the morning ol the Ist lust. I may have been awake two or three times and have dozed ofl again. It was between 2.15
and l.3I) in the afternoon when I got lip and dressed myself. I was goili" towards the bathroom when 1 found my "lie lying m the passage. Alv wife lay partly on her face and partly on her f "li.v dressed. Lizzie (the cook) and I lifted her body into a bed, and we I nrificixl fli.if 4,K.. i'„ _. ...
noticed that the face was all bruised mid discolored, but 1 noticed no wounds or incisions about the he«d. I noticed that a coalscuttle wa s upset at tile entrance to the sitting-room, as if deceased had fallen over it. There was small coal and dust at her feet. I did not notice any blood oil the lloor. The runner in the passage , v «s displaced. Alter the body h'aci been laid on the bed, Luzie proposed to take oil" the clothing, and she did so without any assistance, while I -food watching her. She removed all the clothing from the body ami put a clean nightdress on it. 1 „s----niste.d her to put the nightdress oil deceased. When I touched her hair I got blood on my hand. It seemed to come Irom the crown of the head.
Inspector O'Brien: Was the whole process of undressing done by the cook? Witness: Certainly. The suit lie was nenv wearing was the one he wore on the night of 30th April, tilso on Friday, Ist May, when he .found hi* wife's' dead Imdy. The trousers produced were his. He last iwore them last Thursday. U[) till about noon that morning lie had been engaged in gutthig stock from the back store to the front store and bar.
The police handed the garments to witness. Round the rims of the unklen were blotches of greasy red. Witness: If these are blood-stains, I know nothing about them. The Inspector: Were you doing anything Mmt would cause bluod to attach itself to your clothes?
Witness: Yes, 1 was killing a pig—(here Jii-s voice faltered)—at least, I didn't kill it. but !• assisted the barman (Taylor) to do so. .[ held it while lie slabbed it—stuck it, 1 mean.
Recovering himself, witness went on to reply to'the Inspector as follows: lie had 'washed his hands and dried them on a towel between the lime of placing the body on the bed and the time the doctor arrived. A strange'man whose name he did not know had taken
advantage of witness' absence at the funeral yesterday to dear out without paying.. The stranger had occupied No. 4 bedroom. Witness had not seen tliis man before the night of the 3(lth of last mojith (Thur-day). lie had come in and asked deceased for a bed. Witness had not asked him who he was or what he wanted. It. was not his place to do so, and although he was about the house for three or four days, witness had taken no steps to ascertain particulars or to ask him for payment. As far as he Knew, this was the only stranger who had slept there that nighf. He did not remember telling Constable .Marshall where he last saw his wife, lie did not know if he had told him that lie had got up from hi-> lied on Friday a l ten minutes to 10 a.m. and found his wife dead, but he found that his watch had stopped after he sent the barman oil' with the wire. He heard the goods train coming in from south, and knew it was 2.55 p.m. He did not wind up his match the night before. That was the only explanation he had to oiler for telling the constable that he found his wife dead at !).5U a.m. Continuing, witness said he and his wife did not live peaceably together. As lung as she was not. drinking they were the best- of friends. During the last tour or live months deceased was often drinking to excess. He had not chastised deceased in any way. He had frequently had deceased medically attended owing to her drinking habits. She had been in a private hospital twice on that account.
Dr, Burnett, of Ualelutha, said he received a message from Cornish at 3.15 p.m. 011 Friday, \\ lien lie arrived at the liuU'l llie body was warm, and ■witness gathered that the woman had been dead not more than two hours. Deceased's hair was matted with olood. There was a cut about one and a-lialt' inches long on the right side ol the head juet above the forehead. Both eyes were black, and the face and head were swollen. There was a braise on the right hip, and .several more on other parts of tho body. On performing a post mortem, he found an enormous quantity of blood on the M'alp and skull, accounting for tho i-welling oil the head and the black eyes. The wouml o-n the iscalp must have been caused by contact with a substance having a slurp edge. The skull was fractured in the region of tile eye, and in a direct line with the wound 011 the scalp. The brain was congested. In lii H opinion death was due to compression of the brain. Congestion of the brain could be caused by alcohol. A fall might have e-aused the injury. If a healthy individual 'had received the same injury, lie did not think the same result would l>e fatal. Witness was under the impression that deceased had fallen 011 the coalscuttle, but could not say how the impression, came to his
mind. Kliuabcth Bennett, cook at the hotel, said she last saw deceased on the afternoon of Thursday, April 30. Deceased was not then quite sober. Witness did not see Cornish or deceased on Friday till about 2.15 p.m., when the former said lie thought his wifo was dead. Wit-
ness went into the room, and Corilis.i went into the bathroom with a basin. Witness asked Cornish to help her to jmt his wife to bed in case she was ulive. Witness look no clothing oil' lhe body of dec-eased, nor see anything put on iier. Comisli was sometimes bad with his liver, and the.: remained in bed till late in the day. Witness had not seen a -Granger ai(iut the
house on Thursday or Friday. iSrmie coal had fallen out of the scuti standing 011 its side at the corner of the passage. Mrs. Cornish's room was not cleared up before tlie doctor's arrival. I Cornish was sober on Friday afternoon. Witness did not undress the bodv unil put a clean nightdress on it. Ornish and deceased lived on very good ler.ns. The inquest was proceeding when the I latest message came to hand.
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 115, 6 May 1908, Page 2
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1,380SUSPICIOUS DEATH. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 115, 6 May 1908, Page 2
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