TRAGEDY AT DUNEDIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6028, 16 November 1897, Page 2

TRAGEDY AT DUNEDIN.

SUPPOSED MURDER AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. A HORRIBLE CRIME. A CHILD'S STORY. fPKE PBESS ARgOCIATION.I DUNEDIN, Nov. 10. A case of what is evidently murder and attempted suicide came to light early this evening. Charles Clemence, a labourer, lived with his wife and two children in si right-of-way off George Street. It was noticed to-day that the blinds were down in the house, and no one was seen about. A relative called at the house shortly before six, and his knocking failing to elicit a response, he burst in the door. In the bedroom he found Mrs Clemence lying^ on the bed in a pod of blood, with her throat cut, and dead. Alongside, Clemence was lying with a gash in his throat, and covered all over with blood. At the foot of the bed the two children, six years and four years, were moving about as if nothing was wrong. Assistance ~, was at' once procured. Dr Fulton pronounced the woman to be dead, and gave it as his opinion that she had been dead for some time. The wound in Clemence's throat, he thought, was not likely to prove fatal. Sergeant O'Neill then arrested Clemence on a charge of murder, and removed him to the hospital, where he will be watched by a constable. Clemence is a man about thirty-five years of age ; his wife was about twenty-seven. It is known that they lived very unhappily and had separated once ov twice. Neither of them was given to drink. So far as is known, no one heard any disturbance v in the house. Later. There is not much to add to the case of murder and attempted suicide. Mrs Clemence was last seen alive at eight o'clock last evening. The couple were .often wrangling, and the woman told a neighbour on Sunday that , she had made up her mind to leave her husband. This neighbour had been in the habit. ok' seeing the children. playing about, and not seeing : them to-day she became suspicious. She sent for 'Ross, brother -in .-law of the murdered woman, who bixjke'ln the door. He<3id not think that the woman was dead, but on bringing in a constable, the latter saw that the woman had been dead for some time. The children were at the foot of the bed, but were not playing; were, in fact, too frightened to move. They went to bedsupperless, and the girl, who is about alx years of rge, says that she saw the deed. Her story is that during the night her father got out of bed, pulled up the blind, and cut her mother's throat. He then went into the kitchen and. came back and cut his own throat and then pulled the blind down. . •....' The woman's throat was cut with a pocket knife, and it. was with the same instrument that he tried to cut his own. He said after being arrested, that if the knife had been longer he would have succeeded. Besides cutting his throat, Clemence had evidently attempted to open an artery in his wrist. The neighbours say that the woman was hard-working and iudustrious, and they attribute the crime to the man's jealousy. She was a tall, fine-looking woman, and, so far as the neighbours know, the husband had no reason for his jealousy. Clemence had been an inmate of the hospital, and had undergone an operation for hernia. He only came out on Nov. 1, and has not been at work since. The woman had two wounds on her throat. One deep wouud about two inches long severed the windpipe. CJemence has au incised wound and two or three punctured wounds in his throat. He will recover, unless serious after effects set in.