MURDER BY A SLEEPWALKER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 705, 6 January 1910, Page 4

MURDER BY A SLEEPWALKER.

YOUNG SOMNABUUST SHOOTS HIS MOTHER. A remarkable tragedy occurred at Brussels O'; Sth N., • ember (repents the correspondent of the Express), which is without parallel in police records. A man named Ceulemaus murdered his mother while walking in his sleep. When awakened by his father atter the tragedy he knew nothing of what had occurred, and gave way to such paroxysms of griel that he is iu danger of losing his reason. Ceulemaus has been a somnambulist for years, and although he has tried various devices for breaking himself off the habit, he has repeatedly been found roaming about the house, and even in the street, while fast asleep. On one occasion he climbed on the roof of the house, and when discovered by a policeman, he was walking along the parapet as unconcernedly as though he were in a street below. On Monday, (Bth November), Ceulemaus got up, walked downstairs to one of the living rooms where his rifle was kept, and then went back to the first floor with the loaded weapon. He entered a bedroom where his parents were sleeping, and, going up to his mother’s bed, shot her through the brain, killing her instantly. His father, who was awakened by the report, jumped up and seized him. As the gun fell from his hands, young Ceulemaus gave a violent start, and exclaimed, “Where am I ?’’ He remained in a dazed condition after being arrested and taken to the police station. Although questioned closely, he could give no account of what had occurred. He last remembered getting into bed some hours before the murder.