FARM LOVE TRAGEDY

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 2

FARM LOVE TRAGEDY

WIDOW SHOT DEAD AT CRADLE.

A widow, shot dead as she was sitting by the side of a baby in a cradle, was one of the victims of a double love tragedy at Michaelchurch Escley, Herefordshire. She was Mrs Beatrice Maddy, aged 30, of Great Cefn Farm. The other victim was a farmer named William Price, aged 40, of Pike’s Farm, in the same village, who was a Widower and who was said to have been keeping company with Mrs Maddy. Mrs Maddy was sitting in her house with her mother, Mrs Jones, her 14-year-old daughter, and a baby in the cradle. A gun was fired, through the window and Mrs Maddy fell forward in her chair dead.

Terror seized the other woman and •it was some time before Mrs Jones crept from the house to rush to relatives who live near. She heard a second shot outside the house, and'the police later discovered the body of Mr Price with a gup by his side. Mrs Jones, who is 70, said: “We were sitting together when my daughter’s little girl said someone was knocking at the door. I went, but could find no one. Before I could get back I heard a double shot. I rushed back into the kitchen just in time to see my daughter tumble out of her chair on top of the baby, which was in a cot at her fete.

“Terrified, I got hold of the little girl, snatched the baby, and ran into the next room and got behind the door. I stayed there in the dark for half an hour, wondering what would happen next, and then I heard another double shot from outside the house. That made me more terrified still, and I did not know what to do. At about midnight, when everything had been quiet for a long time, I hurried out of the house, to a neighbouring farm and told the people there what had happened.”

Mi* Price had been a widower for some years and had two children. His Tvr if6 about the same time that Mrs Maddy lost her husband. *