Morning journal and courier., 1881-09-03
The Fair Haven Mystery.

1A0 tblI 0SbV0A SC0Vys
 Another Dead Body Found-FlOating fin
 the QuInnfpiac River-A Jury Sum
 mOned-ERectua1 Efforts at Idenfifi-
 catfOm-Brufses or Woundafn the Fore
 head-Testimony, Etc.
 Yesterday morning at about o'clock the body of Q woman was seen in the Quinnipiac river by ex-Councilman James E. Bishop, jr., of J. E. Bishop & Co.,, oyster dealers of Fair Haven. He was on the dock at the oys- ter establishment of his father looking at the water to ascertain the state of the tide, and noticed an object floating in the stream not far from where he stood. At first it looked like bag such as are frequently used for drowning cats or dogs, but noticing it closely he saw that it was the body of dead person. He ran and got boat hook and hauled it in. Mir. George Clark, groceryman at the corner of North Front and Pine streets, assisted get ting the body to shore. The body proved to be that of 8 woman between 30 and 35 years of age, dark complexioned, grey eyes and ap- parentlv German. When found she was floating on her face and her eyes were | closed, both of which are unusual occur rences. She was dressed in black suit with imitation lace trimmings wore a waterproof cloak and had no hat. She had on brown and white wide striped stockings and button
 boots. On her wrists were plain rubber | bracelets and in her cheap imitation jet earrings. on which was the figure of a wo- mans head. She had also a breast pin of jet. Her hair was cut short, not more than four or five inches in length. | A breast pin of imitation jet clasped the | dress at the neck. The woman was well built, about five feet two inches tall, and
 must have weighed about 40 pounds. Of- ! icer Higgins arrived and took charge of the
 body. The news spread rapidly, and soon l many persons were at the scene viewing the body and talking over the sad affair. No one seemed able to identify the deceased There were no marks or signs of violence on | the face or head except two slight bruises on ! the forehead which looked as if they might ! have been caused while the body was in the | water. Coroner Bollman was notified, and l had the body removed to Undertaken Craw- ford's place on East Grand street, near Pearl
 The following jury looked at the remains before removal: George R. Bill (foreman) William Konold, W. L. Russell, A. V. Eld- ridge, Daniel H. Brown and Thomas D. Jones. The jury heard the circumstances of l the discovery of the remains, and their being 1 brought to shore from Mir. Bishop, jr., and George Clark. By this time theory was started that the deceased belonged in Monto- | wese and was some relative of Jacob Refs, a | soap manufacturer in Montowese. In order I to make inquiries on this and other points, | the jury adjourned to l o'clock. In the l meantime the coroner drove over to | Montowese and found there was no woman missing that Mir. Refs | or anybody knew of. On his return, when l the jury had reassembled, search was made l dropped out from the dead woman's corsets when opened. Dr. s. D. Gilbert arrived and examined the wound in the forehead. It was his opinion from superficial examination that l there was depression in the skull, but could
 not tell positively until making thorough | examination. The wound might have been 1 caused by violence or by the deceased falling l from bridge or by blow. An examina- ton of the wound with instruments was de- ferred to give further time for Identification
 of the remains. Mir Frederick Hemingway, | 1 learned that he thought the woman had been
 in his fathers dry goods store making some
 purchases day two before. He recog- | nized the deceased as the woman he referred
 to. She tried to get piece of goods to l match her dress-the same which was on de-
 ceased. Several persons thought deceased
 looked like womaR who had formerlyworked
 for Samuel Culver, now deceased, among whom
 were Sexton Mabry of the Fair Haven ceme-
 tery, Mrs. Wealthy Thompson, young man
 named John Whipple, Mrs. Bishop, the mil
 liner on East Grand street, near Clinton av-
 enue, who thought she had made hats for
 her. This impression was somewhat dis
 pelled by Edith daughter of the Mir. Culver,
 who failed to identify the deceased. Mrs.
 Thompson thought the cloak and waterproof
 were just like those worn by the woman who
 had worked for Culver. She thought the
 woman was formerly of Wallingford and
 that her name was Mary Forbes and that she
 had three children, two of whom had been
 given to wealthy New York people, the third,
 8 son, being now in Branford. It was her
 belief also that the deceased was the same
 woman for whom she (Mrs. Thompson) had
 saved $500 and put it in Meriden bank, ,and | further that she was a relative of Forbes, the
 Branford stage man. Her impression was
 that the woman she referred to had long hair,
 whereas that of the drowned person was
 short.
 Mrs. Leverett Potters presence was dis pensed with, it being learned that she was
 not able to identify the body.
 | Mr.
 the jury adjourned to meet on Sunday morn
 ing at 10 o'clock at Mir. Bollman's office.
 The body will be kept on ice at Mir. Craw
 ford's in hopes that somebody will identify it. | LATER PARTICULARs-THE BODY IDENTIFIED AS THAT OF MARIA ROWE.
 Later on the body was identified as that of
 Mrs. Maria Rowe, wife of John Rowe, of this
 city, and from what was learned the conclu-
 sion was reached that it was undoubtedly a case of suicide. The deceased was known to
 many people of Fair Haven, being the daugh- l ter of Anson Brown, whom many remember
 and who was drowned four or five years ago
 near Tomlinsons bridge. Deceased and her husband separated some time ago. A broth i CT of the deceased was Merritt Brown, for a long time a conductor on the State street horse railroad, who died suddenly in Sufield | some time ago.
 ANNOUNCING HER INTENTION TO COMMIT SUI CIDE.
 The deceased was a sister of A. K. Brown 1 who keeps fish market at IFS Grand street. | She announced her intention of committing suicide on Thursday night. She was at Miss ! Norton's, No. Hill court and said to her that she was going to drown herself. Yester- 1 day her brother received postal card to l that effect.
 l CoRoNER's CERTIFICATE OF DEATH. The coroner has given a certificate of death