Grantham Journal - Saturday 25 April 1896
Terrible Tragedy at Teignmouth
Murder of three children and suicide of the father
A lodging-house keeper named Henry Haines, occupying the Spring Gardens on the Den Promenade, at Teignmouth, cut the throats of his three children, two boys, aged respectively four years and three years, and a girl of ten months, on Monday afternoon, and afterwards cut his own throat, the heads in each case being nearly severed from the bodies.
It is stated that Haines had been for some time depressed in spirits and that he and his wife did not live happily. It is asserted that he intended to kill her also, but she evaded him. The murderer was aged about forty and had been married a second time. He had three children by his second wife, these being the three whom he murdered.
Harry, the boy by his first wife, is about eight years old, and he was sent to post some letters before the crime was committed. During the temporary absence of his wife, who had gone upstairs to wait on the lodger, Haines cut the throats of the three children. The servant girl, Bertha Newland, was in the kitchen, only a few yards away, but she did not hear any noise, as Haines had closed the door.
He went up a flight of a dozen stairs, entered a bedroom, cut his own throat, and then walked out of the bedroom and fell on the landing. Traces of blood showed this. Mrs Haines heard nothing, but on descending another flight of stairs the murdered children met her view. She raised an alarm, which brought to her assistance several persons, and police aid was immediately sought.
Harry Haines is buried in Teignmouth Old Cemetery, plot T108, and his three children, John E.G., Daisy May, and Fowler R. are buried in plot T144.
