MAD MOTHER'S ACT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 245, 22 February 1911, Page 5

MAD MOTHER'S ACT

SHOCKING AFFAIR AT MASTERTON. ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Masterton, Tuesday. A terrible tragedy occurred at Masterton shortly after midnight last night. Some time before one o'clock, A. Winzenberg, who resides at the top end of Essex street, was awakened from sleep by loud and pitiful screams. He got out of bed and went to the door, but could see nothing. The screams continued, and then he saw a boy in his night clothes, covered in blood, rushing by the house, screaming: "Come to mother, come to the house."

Mr. Winzenberg ran over to the house opposite, which was occupied by Mrs. Gardiner, a widow, and her two children. The front door was open, and on entering the bedroom, where a gas light was burning, a terrible spectacle met his gazo. hying in the centre of a double bedstead was a little girl, about 11 years of age, named Bcryll, whose head was shockingly mutilated. She was lying in a pool of blood, and quite insensible. Mr. Winzenberg ran to the house opposite, and summoned the police and doctors, then returned to the scene of the tragedy. He took the weeping little boy, "Jerry," to his own house, where his wounds were bathed.

The arrival of doctors and the police showed that the condition of the girl was very serious. She had a terrible gash over the eye, and the front of her skull was fractured. She was taken to' the hospital quite unconscious,, and her life is despaired of. The boy suffered from severe contusions on the head, but they were not serious.

The bedroom presented a shocking sight, pillows and bedclothes being covered with blood, and the poker, with which the deed is supposed to have been committed, lying on the floor. The mother was not to be found, but a search was instituted, and she was discovered about 2.15 a.m., face downwards in a creek. Life wag extinct, and the body was. taken to the morgue. The deceased was between thirty and forty years of age. She was formerly a resident of Taurangarere. Her husband, Hector Gardiner, died some time ago, and it is supposed ahe committed the deed in an uncontrollable fit of dementia. THE INQUEST. Masterton, Last Night. The inquest on the body of Kate Adele Gardiner was held this afternoon. A verdict of suicide while insane was returned. The victims of the tragedy are still in a critical condition, and little hope is held out for the recovery of the girl.