Bridlington and Quay Gazette. — 1880-11-20 (Bridlington, Humberside, England)

MURDER AND SUICIDE BY A POLICEMAN AT HULL.  On Wednesday afternoon, about half.past four o'clock, a roost terrible tragedy was reported at the Central Police Station. Parliament. street. One of the police officers, (Police-Constable Plant, 89)ought to have paraded at 12.30, being the usual Wednesday pay parade, but he did not make hie appeaeance, and Sergeant Crossland was requested by one of his super,or officers to ascertain the cause of Plant's non-appearance at parade, as during the twenty years be had been in the force he had been tolerably regular to hie attendance at parade and other duties Crossland reports that he went down to Plant's residence, No 5, Groevenor. terrace, Grosvertor-street, about half-past three o'clock in the afternoon, little imagining the terrible nature of the tragedy which accounted for the non-appearance of Plant on parade. Crossland took with him Poliee.oonstable Mawhirtnie, and when they arrived in Grosvenor-terrace, they found that the front door of Plant's residence woe fast, although the front room window shutters were open. Cros-dand made inquiries of some of the neighbours as to whether Plant or his wife had been seen ' during the day. Some of them had seen the officer during the forenoon, and others said they bad heard both their voices as though they were quarrelling. The Sergeant was informed that Mrs. Plant had an aunt residing at No. 23 in the same terrace, a Mrs. Elizabeth Barmforth, a widow. Crossland went to No. 23, and ask.id Mrs. Barmforth whether she had seen anything of the officer or his wife, but she said she had not. She, however, offered to get into the house if ehe could, and accompanied the officers to No. 5. She tried the door, but could not get in. She next tried the front window, which she opened, and, getting in that way, unlocked the door and let the two policemen in. Sergeant Crossland at once went into the kitchen, and there he was horrified to find Mrs. Plant lying on a sofa with her head as nearly as possible severed from her body. On the floor there ley a bread knife, the handle and blade of which was covered with blood. There was but  little blood upon the floor, the deceased woman's head being thrown back against the back of the couch, and the blood had been caught by tbe cushion of the couch which was so saturated that it had oozed through on to the floor beneath. The sergeant and the constable then went upstairs, and then the latter noticed his late comrade suspended by a piece of line to the bannister at the head of the attic stairs. The body was at once cut down, life having been apparently extinct for several hours. As a matter of form Dr. Thompson the police surgeon, was fetched, and examined both bodies. He stated that life bad been extinct for some hours. One of the neighbours, living next door, states that about ten o'clock on Wednesday morning she heard Plant go into the yard, and at the time he was evidently quarrelling with his wife, but she does not know what he said, and took but little notice of it, for, as she states, quarrelling was a daily occurrence, on account of the woman's drunken habits.