A TRAGEDY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1106, 17 May 1883, Page 3

A TRAGEDY.

A tragic affair occurred near Manchester on February 12. On the arrival at RadclifFe of the express passengers train leaving Ducie Bridge, Manchester, for Bactip, at 2 30, the door of one of the iust-chiss compartments was found open. There was no one in the compartment, brt it had evidently been recently occupied, as an overcoat and two umbrellas were lying on the seat. There was no clue to the ownership of the article, nor waß there any further indication that anything extraordinary had happened; but about three o'clock some platelayers who were at work in the tunnel about two miles from Victoria Ducie Bridge, found , scrambling oa the line, a respectably dressed middle-aged man, who was afterwards ascertained to be Mr J. Kay, a retired tradesman residiog at Radcliffe. It was found that his skuU was fractured, his face bruised, and his clothing soiled as if he had been dragged along the line. He gave no explanation of how he came to be in the tunnel, and he was sent to his home. Some railway servants who went into the tunnel to look for the things which Mr Kay said he had lost, found the mangled body of a woman lying across the rails which the train from Manchester to Iladcliffe had passed. Her legs had been run over just below the knees, and almost completely severed from the body. She was still breathing, but insensible, and in that condition was removed to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, where she died shortly after admission, without having gained consciousness. The woman wa*s afterwards identified as Mrs Kay. It appeared that Kay and his wife had been to Manchester to transnct some business at Brooks's Bank, and left the city together by the 2.40 train. They were in a compartment by themselves, and although several passengers weie in the next compartment no disturbance was heard by them in the tnnnel. After reaching home Kay only gave rambling replies to any questions put to him, It is said that six or seven years ago both he and his wife attempted to commit suicide. The deceased was fifty-one years old. and her husband a little older. The affair remains a complete mystery.