RUMANIAN ACTRESS MYSTERIOUSLY SHOT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 3 January 1930, Page 10

RUMANIAN ACTRESS MYSTERIOUSLY SHOT.

BEAUTIFXJL STAR KILLED; NO MOTIVE APPARENT. The annual ball given by the writers, artists, and stage folk of Bucharest was in full swing; the clock showed that one o’clock in the morning was only a few minutes away. A group of people who had been awaiting the beautiful Valentina Convici, star of the National Theatre, decided that a messenger with a cab should be despatched to her home to bring her to the hall, as a special mark of honour. Several of her friends decided to join the messenger, to make it a delegation. The beautiful Valentina, in fact, was the guest of honour. The cab with the delegation arrived, and ringing the bell received no answer. Somebody tried the door and found it open. They trooped into the handsome drawing-room, and there they saw a sight which made them start back in horroi. Fully dressed for the ball, the actress was stretched out on the floor, dead. Her husband, who is a wealthy merchant of the town, and who had married her but a year before, lay inert in an easy chair. At first they thought he, too, was dead, but upon investigation it was disclosed that he breathed. He was taken to a hospital. When he was able to talk he told what had happened. Madame had come from the theatre, they had dressed to go to the ball, to which they looked forward eagerly, for a great many of their friends were to be there. Just as they went down the stairs into their draw-ing-room, the husband heard two shots. He saw his wife fall to the floor without a sound, and he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in the back. Then he lost consciousness. Beyond these meagre facts he could tell nothing. The bullet in his back did not prove fatal. As far as the police could discover, the actress and her wealthy husband had no enemies. There had been no robbery. The most mysterious part of the entire incident seems the complete lack of motive for the crime. The case is rendered more startling by the fact that in the play in which she was appearing at the time, the actress played a part wherein she was shot by a mysterious criminal.