The Potteries Examiner : — 1878-09-21 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

MELANCHOLY DEATH OF A YOUNG  - - -.LADY. SHOOTING HERSELF WITH A PISTOL. On Monday, Mr. Moore, coroner for the borough of Warwick, held an inquiry into the death of Miss Amy Sophia Bowen, 22 years of age, daughter of Mr. John Bowen, one of the Justices of the Peace for the borough of Leamington. The deceased, who was a cheerful and accomplished young lady, had latterly become possessed of a revolver. The pistol was produced at the inquest, and described as • horrible one, and the evidence went to show that on Sunday morning while she woe endeav• ouring to extraet two used cartridges the pistol went off and killed her, but there was no evidence that it was a case of suicide.-Mr. Alfred Edward Bowen, brother of . the deceased, was the first witaess called. He last raw his sister alive on Saturday night, when she went up. , stairs to bed. His second sister called hit, up at about • quarterpast four o'clock on Sunday morning. He went into the demand's bedroom and fount* her lying I on the bed, apparently dead or dying. He caught hold of her hand, which was damp. He then called his father, and went for Dr. Wyer. On the previous even. ing she appeared to be perfectly well, and was quite cheerful and jovial. He first saw her with a pistol a fortnight ago, when she took it downstairs to show it to her brothers and sisters. He had heard of her practising with it in the garden.-Elizabeth Mary Bowen, 13 years of age, sister of the deceased, stated that when they wrist upstairs at a quarter-past eleven o'clock on Saturday night the deceased threw herself while undressed on the bed, as she sometimes did in summer. When she (witness.) awoke at about three o'clock the deceased was sleeping on the bed and still undressed. She was next awakened hy hearing a report of &pistol, and then saw the deceased, who was standing by the bedside, stagger down on the bed. She thought she had been firing into the street until she heard her moan, and she then called up the household. Ifer sister was always cheerful. Deceased generally kept the pistol by the bedside. She managed to load it all right. She last saw the pistol on Saturday night, when it was in a box on the bed. She had seen the deceased discharge it about a dozen times' and always at the garden door. Her sister used oftea to pick op the pistol during the night and look at it as a toy, and try to extract the cartridges.-Dr. Otto F. Wyer, Leansington, stated that when he arrived at the residence of the deceased's father, at Emscote, shortly after five o'clock, he found the deceased quite dead. She was fully dressed, and laying on the bed. On turning the body over he found the pistol prodaced under the folds of ' her dress. It had evidently been discharged by the left hand. On the lett breast there was awoun,l, such as would be caused by the shot he found in the cartridges in four of the seven chambers of the revolver. He hail no doubt the shot had passed through the heart and lodged in the great vessels of the neck. The pistol was an American one, very roughly made. There were, hesides the case of the cartridge which caused the fatal wound, two cases of discharged cartridges, which he hail great difficulty in extracting; and four other chambers were loaded. The witness explained how he considen d death had been caused, and suggested that it was a miss' adventure. The trigger was unguarded, and went off 1 with the least touch. The Foreman of the Jury (Me. Smith) said the pieta was no more than a toy, and was very baddg constructed.-The Foremau asked Dr. Wyer if he considered the deceased a person who woe likely to commit self.destruction.- Dr. Wyer said there was nothing to lead hies to tonal such as opinion. She was a most charming young lady, and suost accomplished. -Mr. Gold, a juryman, asked with what the cartridges were extracted.-Mr. Bowen, jun., said nothing was kept for the purpose, but a penholder ova bit oh stick was so used. Nothing of that kind was found in the room.-Mr. Gold inquired if there had been any qnarrel with the sleceased.-Mr. A. E. Bowen replied that there was a slight coolness between himself and the deceased. It was not a quarrel; but they were not so confidential as were some others of the family.-The Coroner, in summing up, reminded the jury of Dr. Wyer's evidence that in order to extract the discharged cartridges the pistol must be held in • siangerous manner, and it woo further in evidence that the deceased was in the habit of loading and unloading the weapon, and that she had played with it, and even extracted used cartridges in the night time.-After deliberating some time, the jury returned the following verdict : "That the de masea came to her death by a pistol shot discharged by her own hand, hut whether by accident or otherwise no evidence appears."-The distressing event has caused a painful sensation in the neighbourhood, where the lady's relatives are grisly respected, and much sympathy is felt with them in their sorrow.  A New