WOMAN’S BODY IN A PILLAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 11 October 1922, Page 6

WOMAN’S BODY IN A PILLAR

FIVE MURDER ARRESTS VIENNA, Aug. 23. Five persons have been arrested in connection with the discovery in the office of a timber merchant, Herr Steiner, at Graz, the capital of Styria, of the mummified head, hands, feet, and trunk of a woman named Elsa Montemire, who disappeared at Graz in Aprol. The different portions were wrapped in paper and squeezed into a pillar hearing a /lower vase. Separated from her husband, an olhcer Fran Montemire. was known as the Merry Widow of Graz. Like many women of good family in Austria, she traded privately in furs and jewellery. It is alleged that the woman was invited to tea at Herr Steiner’s flat and that Steiner flung a cord round her neck from behind and strangled her, while a, Lieut. Keller pinioned her hands. For Itwo nights the body lay on a divan upon which Steiner slept. Giber portions of the body were found yesterday under the coal in the cellar of ‘Col. Filipek, Lieut. Keller’s stepfather. Steiner, Keller, Filipek, and the wives of Steiner and Keller have been arrested. It is further alleged that they plotted together to murder the woman and divide the property in her flat. An attempt is said to have been made in March to poison her with morphia, and then she was strangled on April 3.