ALLEGED WIFE MURDER

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 274, 25 November 1897, Page 6

ALLEGED WIFE MURDER

A DUNEDIN TRAGEDY.

DUNEDIN. Nov. 15.

A case of what is evidently murder and attempted suicide came to light early this evening. Charles Clements, a labourer, about 37 years of age, lived with his wife and two children in a right-of-way off George-street. It was noticed to-day that the blinds were down in the house, and no one Was seen about.

A relative called at the house shortly before six o'clock, and his knocking failing to elicit a response, he burst in the door.

In the bedroom he found Mrs Clements lying on the bed in a pool of blood with her throat cut. She was dead.

Alongside, Clements himself was lying with a gash in his throat, and covered all over with blood.

At the foot of the bed were two children, six years and four years of age respectively.

Assistance Avas at once procured. Dr. Fulton pronounced the woman to be dead, and gave it as his opinion that she had been dead for some time. The wound in Clements' throat, lie thought, was not likely to prove fatal. Sergeant O'Neill then arrested Clements on a charge of murder, and removed him to the hospital, where he will be watched by a constable.

Clements is a man about 35 years of age. ! His wife was about 27. It is known that! they lived very unhappily, and separated ! once or twice. Neither of them were given j to drink. So far as is known no one heard any disturbance in the house. A NEIGHBOUR'S STATEMENT. Mrs Clements was last seen alive at eight o'clock last evening. The couple were often Mi-angling, and the woman told a neighbour on Sunday she had made up her mind to leave her husband. This neighbour had been in the habit of seeing the children playing about, and not seeing them to-day she became suspicious, bhe sent for Ross, the brother-in-law of the murdered woman, who broke in the door. She did not think the woman was dead, but on bringing in the constable the latter saw the woman had been dead for some time. THE CHILD'S STORY. The children were at die foot of the bed, but were not playing. J» fact, they were too frightened to move. They went to bed supperless, and the girl, who is about six years of age, says she saw the deed. Her story is that during the night her father got out of bed and pulled up the blind, and cut her mother's throat. He then went into the kitchen and came back and cut his own throat, and then pulled the Wind down. The woman's throat was cut with a pocket knife, and it was with the same instrument he tried to cut his own. He said after being arrested that if the knife had been longer he would have succeeded Besides cutting his throat Clements lias evidently attempted to open an artery in the wrist. J JEALOUSY THE CAUSE. The neighbours say the woman was hard working and industrious, and they attribute the crime to the man's jealousy. She was a tall, fine looking woman, and so far as the neighbours know her husband had no reason for his jealousy. Clements had been an inmate of the hospital and had undergone an operation tor hernia. He only came out on the Ist ot the month, and lias not been at work Bince. uSr^Jff*? -ounds on the two laches long \riJ\ tleeP wound about fci^e. 6 ™lch severed the wind-

Clements has an incised wound and two or three punctured wounds in the throat. He will recover unless serious after effects set in.

Ross, who.burst into the house, said to Clements, "What have you been doing?" The latter replied, "I have done it at last." He told Constable Hickey that he placed a knife in his wife's throat, and then struck the knife with a tomahawk.

The fellow was an inmate of the hospital, and it was believed that Avhile he was there Clement's mind was aflected.

The inquest on Mrs Clements opened on Nov. 22. Constable Hickey said when Ross, the brother-in-law, asked, "What have you been doing, Charley; have you killed her ?" prisoner replied, "Ihave had plenty of cause to do so." Later, he told the constable that the woman self-inflicted her injuries, but afterwards admitted that he stuck a knife in his wife's throat, driving it in with a tomahawk. The prisoner, on his way to the hospital, alleged that his wife had been tampering with herself.