WIDOW'S GRIEF

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 50, 22 November 1937, Page 3

WIDOW'S GRIEF

Own Correspondent.)

Wandered in Cemetery andi Collapsed C0LLAPSE IN WATERHOLE ?

(From Our

SYDNEY, Nov. 12. Detectives investigating the death of a woman whose body was found in a waterhole at Flemington, were told a poignant story whe'n the victim was identified as Mrs. Clara Allan, 45, widow, of Joseph strtet, Lidcombe. Nerve-racked by grief caused by the death of her husband gix months ago, Mrs Allan, who leaves a grown-up family, had apparently mourned over the grave of her husband in Rookwood Cemetery in .tho dark hours of the morning, and then wandered aimiessly to her death in. the waterhole. Although drowning, evidently, was not the cause of death, detectives are satisfied that there is nothing suspicious connected with the tragedy. A post-mortem examination showed very little water in the Inngs, while the organs of the body were comparatively.. healthy. A theqry that' Mrs Allan may have died fro.m poisoning will he tested by the Government Analyst. Since the death of her husband, Da-tective-Sergeant Lawrance Was told, Mrs Allan was accustomed to wander about the cemetery where he was buried, continuing to mourn her loss. She grieved so inueh that she was admitted to hospital, suffering nerve trouble, and was recently discharged from the iustitution. o P.W.D. employees found her fullyelothed .body at 8 a.in. in Hampstead Park, Flemington. She was in a pool 18 inches deep and 40ft. wide. The pool was drained, but rain soon filled it again. Footprints showed where Mrs Allan apparently had walked from the cemetery and collapsed in the waterhole. There' were no signs of any struggle.. More than 12 hou^s elapsed before her identity became known, and relatives visited the morgue to identify .the body.