ASLEEP WITH A SKELETON.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1705, 24 March 1913, Page 8

ASLEEP WITH A SKELETON.

BdDY IN A COTTAGE FOR TWO ■. - YEARS. ■ : Evidence was given at a coroner's inquest .at .Wimborne (England) recently concerning the skeleton 1 of aii agjed woman which was discovered the previous night by tlie town' surveyor and tho police ill a bedroom of a cottage occupied by two aged women. ■ A doctor said tho. body must have been lyiug there for at least two years. ' Sarah Mary ICearley, spinster, agon sixty-four, said the remains found in the bed vrcro those of Ellen Griffin, who was nearlv soventy years of age. Sho and Miss 'Griffin had lived together over tin rty vears after loaving service in LoiWon. They wero great friends. She. last saw Miss Griffin alive between two and three vears ago. One morning sho fainted and died before tlie witness went to work. Sho slept in the same bed with tho body two nights, thinking Miss Griffin might come to life again. Miss Griffin had said she should not wish to be buried in Wimborne, as she did not like tho people, and asked her to keep* her body so that they could bo buried together. Sho did not consider tho request unnatural. The body in tho houso worried her, tho witness ad'ded, but sho was afraid to have it buried as Miss Griffin had threatened to come to lie* again if she did. She was afraid of being haunted. If tho skeleton had not been discovered she intended keepin" it until sho died, and if she had moved out of the house she would have packed tho bones in a box and taken them with The jury returned an open verdict. Miss Keai'loy is on remand on a charge of not having given notice of. the death.