ROSES CAUSE DEATH AND VANISH

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6843, 22 February 1929, Page 11

ROSES CAUSE DEATH AND VANISH

RICH COUNTESS A VICTIM. The mystery of a bouquet of roses, states a message from Warsaw, is baffling the Polish police, as it has already baffled their Italian confreres. • Last January the Countess Feodora Sternowska, a beautiful woman of 34, died at Abazzia in mysterious circumstances. She was a member of a rich Polish family. Her brother was killed in the war, and her parents, broken down by grief at the loss of their son, both died in 1917. The countess and her sister, the Countess Leonie Sterr. nowska, inherited the wealth of the family and a magnificent house near Warsaw.

Countess Feodora was engaged to an officer in a Russian regiment who was killed in the battle of Tannonberg. True to his memory, she refused to listen to the addresses of those who fell in love with her.

At Abazzia a few days before her dealth she happened to meet a man who said that he had been in tho same regiment, as her fiance, and she asked him to come to tea. That afternoon a beautiful bouquet of Mareehel Nicl roses was left for her.

One of her maids brought it to her and asked if she might go out for a little while with the other maid in the countess's service. Her mistress consented, and sni'd that the two neod not return till 9. When 'they did so they found the countess dead. The cause of her death was stated by the doctor who was called in to be apoplexy. It was clear from the two used teacups on the table beside her that the countess had had a. visitor, presumably tho. man who claimed to be a regimental friend of her dead fiance. A considerable sum of money and the countess’s jewels liad ; been taken from the villa and the bouquet of roses had disappeared. The two maids were arrested, but quickly released, as there was no sort of evidence against them, but the alleged friend of tho countess’s fiance could not be found. He had disappeared ,and the Italian police were unable to trace him. The Countess Leouie Steruowska was now sole owner of the family .fortunes and estates. She. lived a somewhat secluded life at her magnificent home near Warsaw. A bouquet of red roses was left for her by a stranger. She gave them to a lady ’s maid and rold litr to throw them away. . They were so lovely that the girl took them . to her bedroom and put. them in water. The next morning she was found dead in her bed. The doctor who was called in stated that the cause of death was apoplexy. The bouquet of roses had disappeared. The coincidence of tho disappearance of the roses had a profound effect on the countess. The police also were greatly iupressed when they heard that at Abazzia, as in tho Polish mansion, a gift of roses was followed by death from apoplexy, and that in both cases the roses had ucen removed by unknown hands. ~ Tho theory has been formed that there is somebody who desires the death of two sisters, and the Countess Leonio is convinced that, had she kept the roses, not the maid, but she herself would be lying deadExports are being called in to assist the police, who arc? utterly baffled by the mystery of the vanishing roses.