EXTRAORDINARY DROWNING CASE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4377, 24 March 1893, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY DROWNING CASE.

Is it H/lurder? . Melbourne filos of March 11th report a mysterious casoofjMwning wbioh is at present occnpjyiif aiUe attention of the Melbourne police. \\ The circumstances are that about a fortnight ago a young man named John Woodhead married a girl, aged nineteen, named Clara Able, and the two went into lodgings in the Albert Park Buburb. Last Monday evening he took her for a row on the Albort Park lagoon, a small lake which is nowhere of a greater depth than 3ft Gin. Woodhead pulled up and down tho lake until half paßt nine o'olock, when, according to his own words, feeling that the exerciso was too heating with bis coat on, he stood up to tako it off, and losing his balance, be fell head foremost into tho water and capsized tho boat, As he fell, his head, he says, stuck in tho mud at the bottpm of tho lake, and, for a time ho was unable to recover himself because his right foot caught in tho outrigger. When ho at last became free he clung to the boat and' called for assistance. Ho could not see his wife, and did not know what bad booomo of. hor until his calls attracted a rescue party and he was taken ashore, and the body of his wife found close to an island sixty yards away, The account which he furnished of tho fatality conveys tho impression that he altogether lost his wits when the boat upset, for the lake at tho spot where the fatality hap- , pened, or where he and the boat were found, was only 3ft Gin in depth, andffl yet be cried for assistance; and wbenK9 Richard Ward, a boatbouse keepenH pulled out to the scene, he was clinjH|| ing to the boat as if his life depenjflH upon the tenacity of his grip, PJflHflP was pretty nearly exhausted;* body of the wife'wsb found about 60 yards away from where the boat is stated to have capsized, and at tho spot the water was precisely 2ft sin in depth. Diligent enquiry has failed to discover any witnesses of the fatality, or of anyone who heard the wife scream. There aro one or two addi* tional circumstances which have a peculiar look, When the body had been handed over to the police, ard had been removed by them to the morgue, Woodhead went to his home and without informing anyone in tho house of what happened went to bed, In the morning carlj his landlady remarked that his clothes were wot, and he had apparently had a good ducking over night, He replied, " Yes, and something more serious than that. Ijgt with an accident, and Mrs WoojHrad is dead," Another fact is that on the' day after the marriage Woodbead insured his life for £7OO. This insurance, however, was not upon his life alone, it waß a joint policy upon the liveß of both, made payable at the death of the one to tho survivor. Thuß, if his wife died ho would receive £7OO, but if he were to die first she would become entitled to the money.

A cablegram received from Melbourne- yesterday, whiob undoubtedly refers to the sanoo case, although A different namo is given, reads as follows ; - 1 ' At the inquest on the body of a young married woman named Mantou (?) who was drowned in Albert Part recently whilo boating with her husband, a verdict of Wilful Murder was roturned againnt the husband, The couple bad only been married a month, Deceased's parents had objected to the match, and only gave their consent on a threat of *& elopement being made. Where the jfi woman was drowned there 3ft of water; and this fact cou]9Hß with the knowledge that Manton hanßl taken out a a joint life insurance icy of £7OO led to the suspicion being '' cast on him.