The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-01-07
COOPER FINDS WIFE
HANGING FROM DOOR
After Watching Husband Leave
for Work Mrs. Joseph War
tina Commits Suicide

Mrs. Eva Wartha, twenty nine years
Old, the wife of Joseph Wartha,
cooper at the Northern Cooperage
company, committed suicide some time
yesterday morning by hanging herself
with clothesline from a hinge on the
kitchen door.
Wartha returned home from work only
to find the house locked. After knock
Ing at the doors and calling for his
wife, he went to the kitchen and peer
ed through window.
The curtain was partly raised. The
glow from the coal stove threw a dim
light around the room and there in the
half light the Mortified husband dis
covered the body of his wife hanging
from the kitchen door, with her face
turned directly toward him.
The frenzied man rushed to the Du-
cas- street police station and Patrol
man Moriarty hurried to the scene.
The Kitchen door was forced, and.
fumbling around the room, the pa
troiman discovered lamp.
Body Hanging From Door
The bright rays revealed every de-
tail OF the terrible scene. Hanging
from the kitchen door was the body of
MRS. Wartha, clothesline tied in
double loop twisted around her neck
and knotted around the upper hinge of
the door. Standing near was the chair
she had stood on while preparing the
death moose: She had evidently, after
arranging the rope, deliberately kick
ed the chair from under her feet and
had slowly strangled to death.
Coroner Miller was called and or
dered the body cut down and placed
on bed. He declared the woman had
committed suicide, and from the con-
dit1on of the body said Mrs. Wartha
mad been dead several hours before
she was discovered by her husband
ut is my belief he said, .that she
hanged herself shortly after Mr. War
tina left the house in the morning."
The body was not taken to the county
morgue but was turned over to the
Hurley undertaking rooms. Wartha was
almost crazed with grief and wandered
about the house calling to his wife to
come back.
Was Cheerful in Morning
why did she do it?',. he moaned.
Only this morning she was alive and
happy and seemed very cheerful when
l went to work. When I came home
this evening and found the door locked
was, dlidiu SOiIiGlUluS udQ happened
and after knocking on the doors went
around to the kitchen. The curtain
was raised and / could see the light
from the stove. I thought then that
my wife had gone to some of the neigh
bors and was about to go around to the
front of the house when something
made me look through the window
Wartha said that his wife had suf-
fered from spells of mental alteration
and a sister had been staying with her
for some time, but lately she had been
much better and the sister had return
ed to her own home.
Officers at the Ducas street station
said that the woman had been partially
insane for some time and that last Oc-
tober she ran away from home while
her husband was at work and was
found day and a half later in an old
shed in the rear of her fathers resi-
dence, 200 Fairfield avenue. She was
crouching on a pile of rubbish and was
talking wildly to herself. Since that
time the woman has been closely
watched until lately, when she seemed
much better.