STRANGE MURDER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 457, 19 May 1932, Page 1

STRANGE MURDER.

Husband Kills Wife after Operation. NO REASON FOR CRIME LONDON, May 17. A poignant tragedy occurred in a London hospital when a miner killed his wife from whom he had been separated for a long time during her illness, and then attempted to commit suicide. There is no apparent reason for the action. Elizabeth Lloyd, aged thirty-six, wife of a South Wales miner, suffered from a disfiguring facial disease and as a last resort was sent to Sir Harold Gillies, the famous plastic surgeon, a New Zealander, who worked for six months to restore her features. He was surprisingly successful, and when the bandages were removed medical students flocked to the ward to admire the oper. ation. When a mirror was handed to Mrs Lloyd she said: “What a surprise it will be for my husband when he comes to see me on Whit Monday.” The husband duly arrived and stayed at the hospital for ten hours, chatting continuously, and giving news of their ten-year-old boy. They were apparently very happy. The nurse left the room for a few moments, when she heard a piercing scream. She dashed back to find Lloyd lying across his wife’s bed with his throat cut. The wife, who was similarly injured, died a few hours later. The husband may recover. There was not a hint in regard to the cause of the tragedy. Lloyd’s neighbours in his home town of Aberdare say that he was depressed and unstrung following weeks of anxiety.