Age: 32
Sex: male
Date: 4 Jan 1925
Place: Hurst Wood, Saltaire
Arthur Valentine Flathers and Hilda Annie Flathers died in mysterious circumstances.
Hilda Flathers was found dead in the drawing room of their home on the Sunday with five bullet wounds in her body whilst Arthur Flathers was found dead on the railway near Shipley on the Monday.
They were said to have been a very devoted couple and had been looking forward to the birth of their baby. There was no evidence that they had had a quarrel.
They were expected to be at a friend's house on the day they died and when they didn't arrive the friend's telephoned their bungalow and when they got no answer they went over to the bungalow and found Hilda Flathers.
A doctor said that any of the bullet wounds to Hilda Flathers could have been self-inflicted but not all of them.
Hilda Flathers had a silk handkerchief tied tightly around her neck which had left a purple mark.
A verdict of murder by persons or person unknown was returned on the death of Hilda Flathers whilst an open verdict was returned on the death of Arthur Flathers.
The verdict on Arthur Flathers stated that he had been kill by being run over on the railway line while trespassing but that there was insufficient evidence to show how he had got there.
The Coroner admitted that it looked very much like a case of murder and suicide.
Arthur Flathers was the manager of the woollen department and a Continental traveller for Messrs. Charles Semon and Co. Ltd, cloth merchants of Bradford.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see Yorkshire Evening Post - Wednesday 21 January 1925
see Gloucestershire Echo - Wednesday 07 January 1925
see Western Gazette - Friday 23 January 1925