Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918), Friday 24 August 1906, page 5


A STRANGE FATALITY.

FOUND DEAD ON THE ROAD

KANGAROO FLAT PUBLICAN'S

DEATH.

John Garrett Fitzsimmons, who for the past 18 months kept the Windermere hotel, on the Lockwood Road, at Kangaroo Flat, has met his death in a peculiar manner. His body was yesterday morning found lying on the road by a carter named Louis Bettie about a mile and a half beyond Porcupine,

on the road to Maldon.

So far nothing is known as to how he came by his death. He was a man well known in Bendigo, having for some time been engaged at St. Aiden's Orphanage. Since then he had been living with his wife and three children at the Windermere hotel, Kangaroo Flat. His mother, an aged lady, lives on a farm just out of Ballarat, and on account of her years she recently asked deceased to dispose of his hotel business, and come to Ballarat to carry on the farm for her. He secured a tenant for the hotel, and on Wednesday afternoon about 2 o'clock he with his wife and family started to drive to Ballarat. Mrs. Fitzsimons was seated in a gig and had with her children, the youngest being about five years and the eldest about 11 years. Deceased drove be-hind in a spring cart, on which was stacked boxes containing several ducks and other belongings, which would be required on the

farm. The cart was so stacked that Mr.

Fitzsimmom, it is said, placed himself in danger of being jolted off along the rough road. The family pushed ahead, and when darkness set in with a drizzling rain to add to the discomfort of the road travellers, the family must have experienced a trying time. After passing the Happy Jack hotel at South Lockwood the rain was still coming down, and though it was pitch dark, Fitzsimons urged his wife to push on as quickly as she could in the gig, and put up at Browns hotel, Porcupine. He promised to catch up to his wife and family there, and Mrs. Fitzsimons followed his instructions. The night passed by without Mr. Fitzsimmons putting in an appearance, but thinking that her husband had decided to make a halt in the bush with his awkward lead, she was not over-anxious concerning his

safety.

Early yesterday morning, however, Louis Bettie, a carter, found Mr. Fitzsimons's dead body lying in the middle of the road a short distance from Porcupine. Froth was coming from the mouth. Bettie at once reported his gruesome discovery to the police at Maldon, and with the assist-ance of Walter Browning, a drover, living at Kangaroo Flat, who was taking cattle to Maldon, the body was conveyed to the

Maldon morgue.

In the dead man's pockets a sum of £61 7/8 was found. The deceased apparently met his death accidentally. It is possible that he may have been jerked from his seat, on the cart, and run over by it, the weight of which was sufficient to crush the life from him. Deceased was 50 years of age, and was a brother-in-law to Mr. G J. Sweeney, the well-known timber mer-chant, of Bendigo.

An inquest will be held at Maldon to-day.