TRAGIC SEOUL TO A BALLOON ELOPEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 58, 30 August 1911, Page 8

TRAGIC SEOUL TO A BALLOON ELOPEMENT.

COUPLE FOUND DEAD IN THE CAE. ! Vienna, July 6. The tragic sequel to an elopement in a balloon is reported from Jassp, in Houmania.

I Some peasants saw a partly deflated balloon coming down in a field near that place yesterday. They hurried to the spot, and when the car settled on the ground they were horrified to discover that it contained the bodies of a man .and a young girl. Both were bleeding from recently inflicted wounds in the head, and the man still clutehed a revolver in his hand.

The police were summoned, and at once afforded a clue to the mystery. The man was M. Jonescu, of Bucharest, against whom there was a charge of abducting the girl, who was the daughter of a well-to-do family in the capital, and a minor.

M. Jonescu was passionately in love with the girl, but her parents regarded his suit with disfavor. The couple decided therefore to elope. There was danger of recapture if they endeavored to escape across the frontier into Russia by rail or road, so M. Jonescu, who was an enthusiastic amateur balloonist, proposed that their best plan would be to make use of his balloon, and thus obviate any possibility of pursuit.

The girl agreed, they started safely, and then came the tragedy. They ha'd covered more than 200 miles of their .!•■•wiiey to safety when, it is surmised, the envelope of the balloon split, and they began to descend—in Roumania. M. Jonescu was aware of what was awaiting him at the hands 0 f the law if he were captured, and in despair, when he realised that descent was inevitable, he fired a bullet into the girl's head and another into his own.