DRAMA OF DEAD WIFE IN DITCH
Husband Found Gassed in All-Electric House
Tragedies Recall Court Case
Walking along a lonely road in WestclifT, South-end, two schoolboys came across the body of a young, fairhaired woman lying face downwards in a ditch. Police officers summoned to the of the tragedy—PrittleweJl Chase—recognised the dead woman as the plaintiff in a matrimonial case al Southend a few days previously. There was an immediate consulta-
tion. Officers were sent in search of j 1 the husband. They called at his, : home. They smelt gas, broke down j a door and found the man dead in a j ' gas-filled room. The victims in this extraordinary j ; drama were : Mrs Elsie Frances Jarvis. 29, of! Colchester Close, Southend; and ; Leonard James Jarvis, 33, a corpora-I tion employee, who lived at Feechers ( Road, PrittlewelL The couple were married three 1 years ago, after a brief courtship, and the husband was said to be very j jealous of his pretty wife, who worked : as a waitress at a Kursaal fun-fair j during the summer. They Had a Quarrell About a month ago they had a quar- i rel. and Mrs Jarvis left her husband. J The next stage in the couple's affairs was reached at Southend Matrimonial Court, where Mrs Jarvis obtained a maintenance order of 25s a week. She alleged cruelty against! her husband. Owing to allegations made by Mrs ; Jarvis in the Matrimonial Court, the j husband was, .at the conclusion of the i evidence, arrested and charged with j breaking into some cottages and steal- j ing money. « Jarvis was remanded on bail ou condition that he kept away from his wife. * Jarvis was_apparently last seen alive about noon "”on the day the two tragedies were discovered. ! He had not been to work, and was standing at a street corner smoking a cigarette. It appears that Mrs Jarvis left her lodgings to go for a walk, from which she never returned. Reported Missing . She had been reported missing beJ fore her body was found, i She was lying fully clothed in the i I ditch, with her head pressed into the j ground. I There were Indications that she had been dragged some distance to the 1 j spot. Her stockings were torn, as! j though by brambles. ! There was a slight trickle of blood' | from the woman’s nostrils, and it is j thought that a post-mortem examina- J j tion will show that she was strangled.' An istonisl • g fi ituie of Jarvis’s' ; death was that he lived In an all- | electric house, with no gas actuallv j connected to it. “ j | Jarvis had pushed aside the furni- j ; ture, ripped up the carpet, and pulled j up the side iloorboards to get to a i i l i |n eas-main. This he had pierced and let the full strength of the gas llood the room, j j The woman with whom Mrs Jarvis ; lodged in Colchester Close said that 1 Mr and Mrs Jarvis had seemed a deI voted couple, although thev occasionally quarrelled. ; When Mrs Jarvis left to go for a' ! walk." the woman continued. • 1 arj ranged to meet her three hours later at Southend. i She did no* mention that she might meet her husband.'’ »
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT19380212.2.124.9
Bibliographic details
Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20422, 12 February 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)
Word Count
545DRAMA OF DEAD WIFE IN DITCH Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20422, 12 February 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Waikato Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.