ECCENTRIC SISTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20229, 13 April 1929, Page 16 (Supplement)

ECCENTRIC SISTERS.

SILENT FOR 35 YEARS, DEATHS WITHIN FEW WEEKS. Disclosures concerning Iwo sisters who lived in ;i house at Strcatham, for thirtylive -years, never spoke to Hie neighbours, hail never been out for three yeais, and died within' a few weeks of each other were made at an inquest nt Brixton on February 20, on the younger sister, Miss Emma Eugene Roth, aged 67, says a Loudon newspaper. It was stated that Miss Maria Roth, aged 70, died suddenly on January 10, and was buried under a coroner's older. Mr. Frederick William Woston, solicitor paid that ho had acted for Miss Emma liolh for 20 years. "X saw her 20 years ago," lie said, "and then did not seo her again until the end of last vc.ik She seemed strange after her sistei s death, and I put it down to shock. She had £2OO a year. The sisters left cross wills. They told mo that they had no relatives, so that now both arc dead the Treasury will benefit." The Coroner, Mr. Douglas f'owburn: She. is said to have been eccentric. Mr. Weston: She had not been out of the house f<>r three years prior to her sister's death. Mr. Weston added that tlio will was locked in a safe in tlio woman's bedroom. Mrs. Louise Cannon, a neighbour, said that she had known about the sisters for 35 years. They were always looked on as eccentric, and would not mix or speak with anybody. Site saw the elder sister go out three years ago. Sho informed tho police when she noticed that the blinds of the house, which had been drawn at 7.30 every morning regularly for many years, remained undrawn and the milk had not been taken in. A police sergeant described how he climbed into a bedroom window and found Miss Roth dead on the floor. He saw in another room a heap of parcels containing toys, which were apparently ready to 1)0 posted. Tho coroner recorded a verdict of "death from natural causes.'i