AGED SISTERS PREPARE FOR GRAVE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1085, 20 August 1912, Page 4

AGED SISTERS PREPARE FOR GRAVE

AND THEN COMMIT SUICIDE.

An inquest held at West Dulwich the other day threw light on a tragedy iu Chancellor road, where, in a room they rented, two aged sisters were found side by side, dressed in shrouds, and with their jaws tied up, as is usual when a corpse is prepared for burial.

One of them, Susannah Clayton, aged seventy, died, apparently from laudanum poisoning, soon after the discovery. Her elder sister, Emma, now lies iu the infirmary in a critical condition. The landlady of the house said that the sisters, who were old age pensioners, had lodged there about a year. Susannah suffered from cancer, and had said she wished she were dead, and Emma had had pains in the head. “For some lime past they have both seemed unsettled, and from words they dropped occasionally it seemed to me they were putting their affairs iu order. They burnt a quantity of old letters. “They left a long letter, addressed to me, signed by both sisters, iu which they begged my pardon for any trouble their act would cause me. Emma had been at the chemists in the neighbourhood, buying laudanum, and had managed to secure two or three half-ounce bottles.”

Owiug to the fact that the sisters were not seen about as usual, and their room was locked, the police were called in. On the door being burst open, the old women were found side by side on the bed, as if prepared for burial. An empty bottle that had contained laudanum was iu the room.