The Herald of Wales and Monmouthshire Recorder. — 1885-04-18 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

TERRIBLE TRAGEDY IN CARMARTHENSHIRE. A FARMER HACKS HIS WIFE TO DEATH.  The quiet and— e-trii;Ettd little village of leugharne, Carmarthenehire, has been the scene of • tragedy of the most horrible nature. The BMW ef the occurrence wasHaisygrove Farm, in which dwelt Mr. Thomas Thomas and his wife. The facts of the tragedy, as far as we can ascertain, as follow :—Mr. and Mrs 'themes, who had no family, were left alone in the kitchen of the farm by the servants about 8.30 p.m. on Friday, when the domestics went to bed. Otte of the girls, whilst in bed, heard screams proceeding from her room about ones' cloak, but did not rise to ascertain whether anything unusual had occurred, because it was a somewhat -common thing of late for Mr. and Mrs. Thomas to , have high words. Mrs. Thomas, by general consent, had been an excellent wife to her husband, who, however, had, up to withina month orsoback, basin a very hard drinker. OnSaturday morning one of the servant girls rose as usual, and was lather surprired to find that het mistress wart not soon about the house. In half an hour, therefore, she became a little alarmed, and went up to her bedroom—which is over the kitchen—and asked if Mrs. Thomas was there. Her master merely said in Welsh, "Yes, she is here," from the interior of the room, and the servent went down. Shortly afterwards a man servant entered the kitchen, and was startled to find blood trickling through the cracks between the board. of the ceiling (which is also the floor of the bedroom), and dropping on the dresser at the side of the wall. He at once made off to a neighbouring farm and called a servant employed there. The two went up to the bedroom, but found the door barred. They then fetched the police, who, on arriving, lifted the door off its hinges. When the two officers entered, a sight of the most harrowing description met their gaze. The poor woman was lying in her night-clothes, face downwards, on the floor near the door, in a large pool of her own blood, and her husband, by whose hand she had fallen, was standing on the bed with the bloody knife still in his haud. As the pollee were entering the apartment he inflicted no lees than seven wounds upon the right side of his own neck, but he appears to have been careful not to do very much damage to his own person. All the wounds but one were superficial cute—or rather scratches—only one being a somewhat deep punctured stab, but that not a dangerous one. An inspection of the lifeless body of Mrs Thomas ' showed that the poor woman had been butchered I in a horrible manner. On her threot was a deep wound six inches long, extending from left to right, which severed some of the large blood vessels of the throat. On the left side of the abdomen, near the navel, there was a fearful wound, from whi .h a large portion of the bowels protruded. It appeared as though the knife had just fallen lightly at first in the terrible ettuggle which must have taken plase producing only a long superficial cut, but the weapon was , then thrust deeply into the abdomen. There ' was further a nasty stab on the right side of the body in the region of the lower ribs; the wound going int) the cavity of the chest, and a fourth stab on the same side, lower down, just above the groin. The struggle for life on the part of the poor woman in her nightelothes mast have been something fearful. The position of her body when the police entered seemed to indicate that she had made a frantic effort to get out of the room— as she was found lying face downwards just inside the door—but it had been securely fastened by the murderer. There is no dretbt she bled to death in a very short time—a few minutes probably—from such wounds. Mrs. Thomas having been found quite dead and cold, the police, upon apprehending the prisoner, took measures to stop the bleeding from his neck, and these had proved effectual by the time Hr. Jones, surgeon, arrived. That gentleman dressed the wounds, and the man was regarded as being out of clinger. It is probable that the murderer, after being committed, will be tried at the Assizes which commence at Swansea on the 23rd April.