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Death In Oily Flames

Death In Oily Flames image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
June
Year
1902
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

DEATH IN OILY FLAMES

Horrible Suicide of Mrs. Francis Harriet Parker

HER CHARRED REMAINS

Were Found in a Hen House by a Member of the Family- Was Despondent for Some Time

A terrible suicide occurred in Lima township on Saturday afternoon when Mrs. Frances Harriet Parker, the wife of George Parker, took her life by pouring oil over her clothing and igniting it with a match. When the body of the unfortunate woman was discovered it was almost unrecognizable, being a mass of charred remains.

It was shortly after 2 o'clock when Mrs. Parker, going to an upstairs room, arranged her hair and attended in otherways to her toilet. She then came downstairs and left the house. This was not thought unusual by her family as she often on previous occasions would leave the house for several hours at a time to visit neighbors. When, however, she did not return at 5 o'clock, a search was made for her with the result that her charred remains were found in a hen-house, where she had gone to take her life.

That she had prepared for the act was evidenced when her skirt, which she wore at the time of leaving the house was found hanging on a fence near the place where the deed was committed.

The position of the body when found would indicate that the woman had made no struggle after she had applied the match to her oil-saturated clothing. She bad apparently lain down on the floor after she had poured the oil on her clothing, and then applying the match had resigned herself to her fate. Mr. Parker was in Chelsea when his wife killed herself.

There is no cause assigned for the woman's rash deed, other than the fact that she has recently read several times the account of a Detroit woman who had committed suicide much in the same manner as she did herself. Since reading the article she has been in a melancholy frame of mind. The body was first discovered by an old lady who had been living with the Parker family. At first she did not realize what the black and charred object was when she went to the hen-house about 5 o'clock. No one being at the house but the dead woman's little 7-year-old daughter, Hazel, the old lady sent for Jacob Schainer, a farm hand who lived close by. When he arrived at the hen-house he discovered that the black object was the dead body of Mrs. Parker. Coroner Watts was summoned and decided to hold the inquest on Tuesday next.

When Mr. Parker returned home and learned of his wife's death he was prostrated by the news.

The body of Mrs. Parker was brought to this city Tuesday for burial, where before her marriage she was well known as Frances Miller, being a graduate of the High school about 35 years ago.