Diss Family History Group

VILLAGE MYSTERY.

WOMAN BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN MURDERED AND BURNT.

The theory of suicide in the case of Rose Harsent, a domestic servant, who was found with her throat cut and her body badly burned in a kitchen in Peasenhall, Suffolk, on Sunday morning, has been completely disposed of. The medical gentlemen who have examined the young woman’s remains are of opinion that she was foully murdered.

An anonymous letter which the deceased received on Saturday has been discovered. The writer asked the deceased to put a light in her window in order to show that he might meet her at midnight. There were two terrible cuts in the woman’s throat, and some cuts upon her hands suggest that she had endeavoured to protect herself from an assailant.

The kitchen smelled strongly of paraffin, and the fact that the deceased’s nightdress and a tablecloth had been alight suggests that an attempt was made to burn the house.

William Gardiner, a Peasenhall carpenter, and a married man, has been arrest on suspicion. He was remanded yesterday by the Halesworth magistrates, and will be brought up to-day at Saxmundham.