The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-12-03
DOUBT ON MURDER
Police Say Mrs. Snead End
ed Her Own Life.
ALL DEPENDS ON NOTE FOUND.
In It the Young Woman Said She
Would Commit Suicide, and the
Handwriting Appears to
Be Hers.
ALL DEPENDS ON NOTE FOUND.

East Orange, N. j., Dec. 2.-After a
thorough investigation into the mystic
rious death of Mrs. Ocey w. NJ. Snead,
whose dead body was found in bath
tub in a house here, where she resided
with her aunt, Miss Virginia Ward
law, Detective George O'Neill of the
East Orange police declared that the
woman had taken her own life and
that Miss Wardlaw is unjustly held in
prison on the charge Of murder. Chief
Of Police Dell agrees with O'Neill in
this conclusion.
The note found near the body of
Mrs. Snead, pinned to a dress, has
hitherto been regarded as forgery by
those who Joined in the belief that the
young woman was murdered. The
note ran as follows:
Last year my little daughter died 9th
er near and dear ones have gone before.
l want to join them in heaven. / have
been prostrated with illness a long time.
When you read this l will have commit
ted suicide. Do not grieve for me. Re-
joice with me that death brings a blessed
relief from pain and suffering greater
than l can bear.
OCEY w. NJ. SNEAD.
Detective O'Neill found that Mrs.
Snead's husband worked as a stock
man in the lumber yards of John X.
Corbin in New York in January last
and that Mrs. Snead often made up
her husbands accounts.
The writing in the books of the Cor
bin company, Detective O'Neill said,
comedies with the writing of the note
she left saying that she intended to
commit suicide. 1-g e, : ,e-;
County Physician Mckenzie and
Deputy County Physician Simmons of
Essex county developed the fact that
Mrs. Snead's lungs were filled with
water, indicating death from drown
ing. The stomach is said to have
shown no symptoms of irritation, but
the. contents were removed for exami-
nation, as 1t was thought possible
| traces of poison might be found.
Locked up in the Essex county jail
as the murderer of her niece, Miss
! Wardlaw, the fifty-seven-year-olds spin
ster, refused to say word when told
| that an infants skull and punches of
hair, different in color, had been found
in the kitchen stove of apartments she
formerly occupied at 1893 East Forty
eight street, Brooklyn.
There were two punches of hair, one
of reddish hue and the other blopd
in color, and their discovery led the
detectives to believe that two children
might have been done away with.
hak
found on the parlor floor. They led
| up the stairs to the second floor and
along the hall to the bathroom. There
the trail stopped.
The detectives have satisfied them
! selves that Mrs. Snead's husband died
| last August and that her three-month-
| ole baby is now in st. Christopher'S
hospital, Brooklyn.
The three elderly women who lived
with young Mrs. Snead in house In
the Flatlands district of Brooklyn
| seemed to exercise a strange spell over
her. They are Mrs. Martha Wardlaw,
about eighty-three years old; Miss Vir-
ginia Wardlaw, fifty-seven years old
and daughter Of Martha, and Mrs.
Mary Snead, daughter of Martha. sis
ter Of Virginia and mother-in-law Of
the dead girl. They are all from
Christiansburg, Va, where Fletcher
Snead and Virginia Ocey Martin were
married three years ago.
The old women and Ocey, the girl,
lived in the town of Christiansburg,
near Roanoke, until couple Of years
ago. There during the winter they
conducted the Montgomery Female
college. During the summer this was
boarding house or hotel. Mrs. Mar
tin, Ocey's mother, taught in, the
school, having been teacher In New
York good many years ago.
Besides this place the Wardlaws
owned other property. Ocey owned
about $4,000 worth of real estate in
Virginia and Ohio.
In February, 1906, there was consid-
erable mystery about the death Of
John Snead, a brother Of Fletcher, the
missing husband of Ocey. He was
found in a small outbuilding near the
school In Christiansburg burned to a
crisp. He had been married, but was
not living with his wife. His rela-
tives-the same who have been with
ocey lately-attempted to collect his
life insurance at once.
Miss Virginia Wardlaw, the present
prisoner, and Mrs. Martin demanded
the money OF the Mutual Life Assur-
ance company. One policy, held by
this concern was for $1,000 nxas
only six months old PaTmd