State v. Springer

This appeal emanates from an inquest into the death of a patient at the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury.

The body of a patient was discovered in a remote wooded area near the hospital, covered with green hospital bedsheets, pine needles, moss, and a jacket belonging to another hospital patient. The owner of the jacket, Arthur Hanson, had left the institution with the decedent. The cause of death was a contact gunshot wound to the head. The fatal weapon had been *473purchased by Hanson and was found buried approximately S50 yards from the body. The only possible additional evidence regarding…