STORY OF TRAGEDY

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21583, 20 November 1941, Page 6

STORY OF TRAGEDY

FARM COTTAGE FIRE HUSBAND’S THROAT WOUND (By Telegraph.— Press Association) DUNEDIN, Thursday Further details are learned of the tragedy at Moa Flat, near Heriot, where the body of Mrs Marion Beatrice Flaxman, aged 25, was recovered, severely battered about the head, from a cottage which was completely destroyed by fire in the early hours of yesterday morning. The woman’s husband, Charles Henry Flaxman, aged 36, is a patient in the Tapanui Hospital, suffering from a wound in the throat.

Flaxman has been in the employ of a farmer, Mr A. J. Hodgkin, and was living in a cottage on the property with his wife and infant daughter. Early yesterday morning a neighbour, Mr J. Garden, heard cries for help, and going outside found the man’s cottage ablaze. Behaviour of Husband

He ran across the intervening paddock and found Flaxman coming from the house carrying the child in his arms, whereupon he entered the burning building and brought Mrs Flaxman outside. He thought at first she was suffering from fumes and applied artificial respiration, but examination disclosed severe wounds on the head.

Mr Hodgkin in the meantime had been summoned by Flaxman, who told him "Marion has been badly burned.” He accompanied Flaxman to the cottage but on arrival there the latter ran behind the stable, where following him later Mr kin found him with a throat wound. The hospital reports that the injuries are not serious.

An inquest into the death of Mrs Flaxman was opened before the district coroner, Mr J. H. Waite, of Roxburgh, and adjourned.