["Constable Parker's Tragic Fate", The West Australian, Thursday 14 April 1904, page 3]
CONSTABLE PARKER'S TRAGIC FATE.
INQUEST AT WYNDHAM.
The Crown Law Department have received from the authorities at Wyndham the papers in connection with the Coroner's inquest held on the bones and fragments of clothing found in the stomach of an alligator caught in the Cambridge Gulf on March 27, and supposed to be the remains of Police-Constable Henry George Parker, who mysteriously disappeared on March 6.
The first witness examined at the in quest was Patrick Sherry, a warder at the Wyndham Gaol, who stated that he last saw Parker on board the steamship New Guinea at about half-past 9 p.m. on Sunday, March 6. The steamer was alongside the Wyndham jetty, and Parker was standing on the deck by himself. The witness noticed nothing peculiar in Parker's behaviour.
Jacob Kuhl, a labourer, residing at Wyndham. deposed to having, on March 27, caught an alligator, in the stomach of which he found some rags of clothing, which looked to him like portions of a uniform. A subsequent examination revealed some bones in the stomach of the alligator. William Goodridge, corporal of police, in charge at Wyndham, gave evidence to the effect that, on the night of March 6, Parker told him he was going down to the jetty to the steamer New Guinea, to see if things were quiet, and to borrow a paper from Mr. Finmore, the head cattleman on board, as he (Parker) had been informed that there was a paragraph in the paper about an affair of his. On March 27 the witness received a message from Jacob Kuhl that he wanted to see him (Goodridge) on the jetty. When witness got there, Kuhl was opening an alligator. Witness saw a heap of clothing that Kuhl washed. Witness identified the pieces of macintosh and the pieces of shirt as simi lar to those that had been worn by Parker, and later lie recognised part of the sleeve of a uniform coat, from the elbow down. Under cross-examination by the jury, the witness stated that he had noticed nothing in Parker's behaviour to lead to the supposition that he would be likely to commit suicide. Parker had been despondent over a shooting affair in Broome. He seemed to worry about it, and for the last three days before he was missed he scarcely had anything to eat. Dodwell Browne, District Medical Officer at East Kimberley, deposed to having made an examination of the bones in question. They were those of an adult human being. The jury found that the remains were those of Henry George Parker, who came to his death at Wyndham on March 6, but how, there was no evidence to show.
