A DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 259, 12 April 1915, Page 4

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

WIFE MURDER AND SUICIDE. JEALOUSY THE CAUSE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. A shocking murder, followed by the suicide of the murderer, happened at Woolston thin morning. The facts are that Charles Castav Petersen, aged 04, a lahoier residing in Park Street, Woolston, and his wife Catherine Mary Petersen, aged 48, were found in their bedroom about midday, quite dead, the husband having cut his wife's throat with a razor and then his own. A razor was found lying at the back of the husband, close to his head. Custav Vincent Petersen, about 25, who resided wit?, his parents, left home at 5 a.m. and went fishing at Iledoliffs, and on his return a'hout midday found the blinds down and the fire not lighted. Entering the bedroom he found his parents dead. The husband had not been working for the past four years, and is alleged to have developed a mania of jealousy. He laboured under the delusion that many men were, in the house or visited it, and on several occasions had threatened violence. The wife had hcen in failing health recently, and during the last fortnight was worse. At the inquest a verdict was recorded that the wife wag murdered by the husband, and that the husband committed suicide.