TELEPHONE MURDER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9590, 24 July 1907, Page 1

TELEPHONE MURDER.

•A PATHETIC LETTER, [IST EI.ECTKIC TULIUKAPU. —Coi'TIIIOUT.] •(■Pku Pkess Association'.) Received' July 24,. at 8.17 a.m. . Vienna, July 25. Ur llau, an American lawyer, was sentenced to death at CaTlsmhe for shooting his mother in-iaw at Baden in November last, in order to obtain her fortune. He telephoned to her to meet him, and then shot her. While he was awaiting trial his wife committed suicide in .Lake Zurich. The following particulars are supplied bj-.the special correspondents of the London Daily Mail:— . ' Zurich, Sunday, June 9. There has been a tragic sequel to the case of the American lawyer, Karl llau, who was arrested in London in November arid extradited on a charge of murdering his mother-in-law, Frau Molitor, in BadenBaden. The woman was lured from her home by a telephone cali, and shot down in the'street. llau is now in prison in Carlsruhe, and will.shortly stand his trial. On Friday, evening a well-d.ressed lady arrived at Pfaeffikon from Zurich, and went straight from the railway station to the baths in Lake l'faefnkon. She dis-. robed, and entered the water, swimming among the other bathers. A few minutes later the bath attendant saw her quietiy cease swimming and sink. He lowed out in a boat, dived, and brought her to the surface, and rowed ashore. A doctor tried every method of resuscitation, but without success. The dead woman's dress was examined and v the following letter found : s "My name is Lina Hau, nee 1 Molitor. I come from Treves, and am thirty-one yearn old. I have a house in Baden-Baden. It is uttcriy impossible for me to Lear any longer the grief 1 feel for my husband, now so tar removed irom me. Theictorc I have decided to leave the world, hard though it is to go when I think of my darling child'. - ' Berlin, Sunday, June 9. Though the report of Hau's confession is officially denied, it is believed, that when his wife visited him on Thursday, last he made -1 certain admissions which definitely convinced her of his being guilty of the murder of her mother. There was a most distressing scene yesterday when Hau was told of his wife's death,/and realised, the plight in ' which it left his four-year old child.