KNIFING TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 23724, 4 November 1940, Page 6

KNIFING TRAGEDY

WIFE CHARGED WITH MURDER ACCUSED REMANDED [Per United Press Association.] . WELLINGTON, November 3. After an alleged attack by his wife, Francis Norman Laurentine, a waterside worker, about 37 years of aga, was taken to hospital on Saturday night with severe knife wounds in his left groin and back. He was admitted at 7.50 p.m., but had lost so much blood that, despite a blood transfusion, he died at 8.30 p.m. At 10.20 p.m. Detective-sergeant W. M'Lennan and Detective Smeaton arrested Joan Laurentine, aged 31, on a charge of murdering her husband. She will appear in the Magistrate’s Court to-morrow morning’, when a remand will bo asked for by the police. The couple rented two rooms at 263 Willis street over premises occupied by the New Oxford Book Club and Dayal Chhiba, a bootmaker. Other occupants of the rear premises are Mr and Mrs Avery, who have a flat upstairs on,the same floor as the Laurentines, and two elderly women. Miss Brew, who lives downstairs, and Mrs Marshall. The Laurentines, it is understood, had spent the afternoon at the Wellington Trotting Club’s meeting at Hutt Park, and had been brought home by a friend in his car, arriving about 7 p.m. The first thing others in the house knew of the affair was when, about 7.30 p.m., Mrs Laurentine rushed downstairs crying that her husband was dying. The police were sent for, and an ambulance was quickly on the scene. Laurentine was wrapped in a blanket and rushed to hospital. He had lost a great deal of blood. Mrs Laurentine accompanied her husband to hospital in the ambulance. The Laurentines had been married for about nine years, and had resided at 263 Willis street for about five years, though not all the time in their present rooms. They moved from similar rooms at the back of the premises when another tenant left. Mr Laurentine was a native of London, and had followed the sea before taking up work on the wharves. Mrs Laurentine. who is partly of Maori Tflood, was a Miss Clark. About four years ago, the couple’s only child, a boy of five, died of pneumonia, following a chill. ACCUSED REMANDED WELLINGTON, November 4. .loan Laurentine (31) appeared in the Magistrate’s Court this morning charged with murdering her husband, Francis Norman Laurentine, on November' 2. With the consent of counsel a remand was granted to November 20