Clara Kathleen Moore

Death recorded in NZBDM death index as 1st July 1932

"BODY IDENTIFIED - Extensive inquiries by the Police Department with a view to establishing the identity of a woman whose body was on the beach at Karaka Bay on 28th July have resulted in Mr. Clement Spackman identifying her, from a photograph taken by the police, as Miss Clara Kathleen Moore, aged about 50, who had recently been employed at his home in Dunedin.

At an inquest at the Magistrate's Court to-day, before the Coroner, Mr. T. B. McNeil, S.M., Mr. Spackman identified the police photograph and also certain articles of clothing. Miss Moore, he said, had lately been in Auckland on holiday and had left to come to Wellington on her return journey to Dunedin.

After formal evidence had been given by the police the Coroner adjourned the inquest until 6th September to enable further inquiries to be made."
EVENING POST, VOLUME CXIV, ISSUE 46, 23 AUGUST 1932

"WOMAN'S DEATH BY DROWNING...To-day. A verdict that deceased was found drowned at Karaka Bay on July 28, 1932, there being no evidence to show how she came to be in the water, was returned by the coroner, Mr. T. B. McNeil, S.M., at the inquest conducted yesterday into the death of Miss Clare (sic) Kathleen Moore, aged 50, of Dunedin...The police had also interviewed Mrs Gascoyne, aged about 80, who lived at Devonport, Auckland. Mrs. Gascoyne had told Constable Carrel that Miss Moore, who had been staying with her for about nine weeks, left her on July 19 to go to Wellington. Miss Moore returned to Mrs Gascoyne's home on the morning of July 26, and told her she had done something terrible. She would say no more, and left Mrs Gascoynes' home to catch the evening train for Wellington that same day. On July 28 Mrs. Gascoyne received a letter from Miss Moore, post-marked Wellington, which enclosed a £5 note and a written note, telling Mrs. Gascoyne that she would not need the £5 she had borrowed. Evidence as to the identity of deceased was given by other witnesses, with whom she had stayed at Christchurch and Dunedin. Dr. P. P. Lynch, pathologist to the Wellington Hospital, who made a post-mortem examination of the deceased, said that in his opinion death was due to drowning. The coroner said there was no doubt that Miss Moore was worried when she returned to Wellington. There was nothing to show how she came to be in the water, and he would have to return an open verdict."
STRATFORD EVENING POST, VOLUME II, ISSUE 39, 7 SEPTEMBER 1932