Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1892-11-26 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SUICIDE OF MRS. MAUDE.  Mrs. Catherine Lulu Maude, the mother of the young lady in the above case, committed suicide Paily on Thursday morning by jumping out of a window on the third floor of the Great Western Hotel, Paddington. She went into the hotel on Wednesday afternoon, and, giving the name of Mrs. Maitland, asked if she could have a bedroom. The bookkeeper, to whom she addressed herself, replied in the affirmative, and a servant having been stnnmoned, Mrs. Maude was shewn into a small bedroom on the third floor, the window of which looks out upon the approach to the Great Western Railway Station. From that time until late in the evening nothing was seen or heard of her, but at about 9 o'clock a parcel and note were brought to the hotel for her. The hall-porter took them to the room occupied by Mrs. Maude. He knocked twice at the door without being able to obtain any answer. Finding the door was locked he knocked louder, and this time Mrs. Maude inquired "Who is there ?" in a tone that denoted annoyance at being disturbed. The porter told her that he had a paral and note for her, but she answered that she could not attend to parcels and notes at that hour, and added that he could not come in. The porter then returned to the hall, and nothing more was heard of Mrs. Maude until 8 o'clock the next morning. At that hour one of the servants on going out into the area found the maimed and lifeless body of the unfortunate woman lying on the stone pavement. She at once communicated the fad to the secretary, and messengers were immediately despatched for the police and for medical assistance. The doctor, on his arrival, examined the body of the deceased, which was terribly injured, and pronounced life to be extinct. In fact, the body was already cold, and it was evident that the poor woman had been dead for some hours. She had fallen from her bedroom window into the area, a distance of 40ft. or 50ft. Her strange behaviour at the hotel, and the fact that on Thursday morning her room was found to be locked and double bolted on the inside, leads to the assumption that she deliberately threw herself out of the windo* with the intention of committing suicide. It is known, too, that Mrs. Maude was in extreme difficulties. Not only were telegrams found in her pockets, one demanding the immediate payment of £2O and the other asking for a settlement of a much larger amount; but on Thursday afternoon two gentlemen called at the hotel, and one of them informed the secretary that he had been looking for Mrs. Maude all day. He added that he had a warrant for her arrest, and had been to 16, Hyde Park-gate, Kensington-road, where she resided, and had searched the bout,-e from top to bottom, but without Gietng her. The bookkeeper who received Mrs. Maude on her arrival at the hotel says she brought no luggage with her, and only carried a small handbag. She was a handsome woman of about 40 years of age and very tall. She was a very heavy woman and the fact that she had fallen right through the woman, material with which the area was roofed over may explain the reason why her body was not discovered sooner. On the arrival of the police the body was removed to the Paddington mortuary.