The odd case of a woman who police claim stabbed herself to death with an 8 inch long knife - you would have to be a Japanese officer in dire straits to do this! For some reason police have always stuck to their suicide finding. A doctor working in a funeral parlor thought it was odd that the woman had wounds on her hands as if she was defending herself. It took two years before police got back to him after he reported this.
Police said that the victim, Dr Karen Mahlo, had stabbed herself as she lay on her back in bed. John Michael Hehir, her boyfriend, was not a suspect, then: his claims of not being able to phone her and rushing to her house had been verified. He said lights were turned off downstairs. Why would you turn the lights off if you were going upstairs to kill yourself?
A very strange thing was that the knife had been plunged through her pyjamas. One would have pushed the pyjamas aside to get it over with. Her death was well planned: a note was on a running computer with a copy on the desk and another addressed to her children telling then they were left nothing. Cases of such vigorous preparation are rare.
John Hehir behaved in a peculiar manner. During the drive to Mahlo's home on the night of her death he phoned for an ambulance before he reached the house. Soon after he returned, then took a bike and a USB drive. Hehir had a will in his possession which left him her house but not her investment properties. The "real" will was located on the computer leaving everything to her children and parents. Unfortunately, the computer will is not valid.
Justice Philip McMurdo dismissed the family's claim. There has never been an inquest into the death. It shows how stupid police and judges are in cases like this. John Michael Hehir has never been charged.
◆ Law by Ty Buchanan ◆
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