A DOUBLE MURDER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5655, 28 August 1896, Page 3

A DOUBLE MURDER.

BRtJTAI CRIME.

A SHOPKEEPER AND HIS WIFE. OLD CHRISTCHURCH RESIDENTS. TPeb Press Association.] WELLINGTON, August 28. News has just been received that Mr and Mrs Jones, who kept a shop at Petone, head of the harbour, were found murdered this morning. The place had been robbed and it is supposed that the thief was the murderer. Jones was a man of seventy, his wife being about five years younger. He was formerly manager for Mr Plaisted, ironmonger, at Hokitika and Christchnrch. He kept a grocery store m Jackson Street, and lived on the premises, no family being with them. Between nine and ten o'clock last night Mrs Atkinson went for a tin of cocoa, but though a light was burning she could make no ono hear. About eight o'clock this morning Mrs Hounslow went. The lamp was still burning 1 , and she saw a man lying dead on the floor, and ran out screaming " Murder." Mr Godfrey, one of the railway workshops employes, ran up and found both Jones and his wife brutally inur- ! dered. The man had four or five stabs in the back, and the wife had her throat cut. Both were fully dressed, and were not in the bedroom, whence it is inferred that the deed was done last night. Mrs Jones was covered with blood, and also had a cut on one of her hands from a sharp instrument, but no weapon was found. There are a number of neighbours all round, but no one appears to have heard anything. At present, robbery is supposed to have been the motive. It is known that some time ago Jones was in possession of a considerable sum of money. Latsji. Jones was found on the kitchen floor, and his wife in the passage by the front door. The latter was lying in a pool of blood, which at first gave rise to the report that her throat had been cut, but a cursory examination fails to show any wound, and it is thought that she may have burst a blood vessel through the shock, or in the effort of trying to escape. Jones had three stabs in the back. Nothing was taken from the house so far as is known. The police were early on the scene, but the only clue so far is a heavy footmark outside the hotise. A man named James Shaw, employed on a bank contract at Petone, has been arrested on suspicion of being connected with the tragedy.