GARAGE DEATHS MYSTERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 June 1932, Page 10

GARAGE DEATHS MYSTERY

RIDDLE OF ‘HAUNTED’ HOUSE. CATERHAM, May 18. The Surrey County police are investigating the mysterious deaths of Mr George Herbert Freeman, 51, soli citorfi of 5, Bedford Row, London W.C., and his wife, Charlotte Marguerite Freeman, 39. They were found dead this after noon in a garage attached to an old farmhouse known as Tollsworth Manor, at Chaldon, near Caterham, where they had been in the habit of staying for week-ends.

The place is declared by villagers to be haunted, and to have brought bad luck to everyone who has lived there. « Mr and Mrs Freeman had spent the week-end with friends at Hove, and left there on Tuesday with the intention of returning to London by train. They did not reach their home, and Air Freeman failed to appear at his office to-day. Friends became anxious, and \visited Tollsworth Manor this afternoon to ascertain whether the couple had changed , their minds ancj gone there instead. The garage door was partly open, the lights of the car were full on, and the tragic discovery was then made. The petrol tank was empty. Mr Freeman, whose body was found on the floor of the garage had apparently been attending to the engine, as the bonnet of the car was lifted up and the tool box was open. Mrs Free man was lying near her husband whose body was partly under the car. There was luggage on the car, and it is possible that Mr and Mrs Freeman were last night completing preparations for an early start on a journey to-day. The bodies have been removed to the mortuary at Merstham, and an inquest will be held at the Griffin Hotel, Merstham, on Friday afternoon. Mr and Mrs Freeman, who were married about four years ago, have a boy aged three. Mr Freeman had two sons, aged 18 and 13, by his first wife and Mrs Freeman had a daughter (now 19) by her first husband. It was stated at the London house , of Mr and Mrs Freeman last night that they were expected home yesterday. There was no suggestion that they were going to visit their place at Chaldon.

Tollworth Manor is an old-fashioned farmhouse built 200 years ago, and stands in its own grounds, some distance away from the nearest house. Inhabitants of Chaldon will not go near it after dark. A man who has lived in the village for many years said to-night: — “Bad luck in some form or other has overtaken every person who has occupied the place for almost as long as I can remember. I am not one of the superstitious sort, but the run of bad luck through people living in the old farmhouse is most uncanny. “The house had been standing empty for some time before Mr and Mrs Freeman took it over, and we wondered whether some sort of ill-fortune would come to them. Now this has happened.”