Genealogy Investigations Ltd
  • Home
  • Family Tracing
  • Deceased estate tracing
  • Family History
    • Basic Family Tree Report
    • Henry's story
  • Interpreting DNA
  • WHO WE ARE
    • The legal stuff
    • GI news stories
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Getting started on your own

Our updates and stories

The ghost of Phillis Symons

10/29/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
The grave of Phllis Avis Symons (centre with no headstone) at Karori Cemetery
Grave Story #3
Everyone knows that you toot in the Mount Victoria Tunnel in Wellington but not everyone knows it’s supposed to be because of a ghost.

Since it’s Halloween we thought we would share with you the ghostly story of murdered 17-year-old Wellington girl Phillis Avis Symons.

Phillis was killed by her lover, George Erroll Coats.  A widower with six children already, and he did not want another. So when Phillis told him she was pregnant he did not want to keep her around anymore.

Phillis was an unsophisticated girl, and her parents had not agreed with her liaison with Coats so she had ended up living with him in a ramshackle rooming house in Adelaide Road.

In June 1931 she went missing.

Work on the then-under-construction Mount Victoria Tunnel had to be halted as a massive search began for her. 
More than 100 workers shifted an estimated 2000 tonnes of rubble in the search, which ended when her body was found in the spoil  excavated from the tunnel. 


Phillis was found face down wearing a scarf.

The case horrified Wellington.  A pathologist said he believed she was made to kneel before being hit over the head with a spade then tipped into the hole made for her.

But worse was to come.  The pathologist believed also that she - and her unborn child - were still alive at the time and only died when the earth was thrown over the top of her.

Coats had been a relief worker at the works site but had lost his job, meaning he was familiar with the area.

Coats’ trial was a sensation.  People queued to get into the Supreme Court to hear it.  There was even a scramble for seats.

He was found guilty and hanged at the Mt Crawford Prison on December 17, 1931.

Phillis and her baby rest in an unmarked grave in Karori Cemetery.  Coats too is in an unmarked grave in Karori sharing the grave with his wife Constance and their two-month-old baby Pat who died five days apart in April 1930 - a year before Phillis' murder.

While Phillis did not actually die in the tunnel it was believed the tooting started as a mark of respect to her.
​

Nearly 90 years after her death, Phillis is remembered, if only in the loud honking of horns by passing cars. Happy Halloween and don't forget to toot for the ghost of Phillis!


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Fran and Deb's updates

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020

    Categories

    All
    Grave Stories
    Hidden Cemeteries
    Kiwi Icons
    Our Work

    RSS Feed

SERVICES:
Tracing lost family
Deceased estate tracing
Family history research
Interpreting DNA results
CONTACT US:
Email: [email protected]
​
Online contact form
​Phone: 021 473 900
(+6421473900 outside NZ)
​
Site powered by Weebly. Managed by HBHosting
  • Home
  • Family Tracing
  • Deceased estate tracing
  • Family History
    • Basic Family Tree Report
    • Henry's story
  • Interpreting DNA
  • WHO WE ARE
    • The legal stuff
    • GI news stories
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Getting started on your own