Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1878 — A Virginia Bride’s Crime. [ARTICLE]

A Virginia Bride’s Crime.

A sensational and horrible murder was recently enacted in Carroll county, Va., the particulars of which we glean from the Richmond papers: “ The parties to the affair are Mrs. Maud Travers, a bride of a few days, accomplished, beautiful and wealthy, who murdered her husband, John Travers, 70 years of age, in cold blood. Mrs. Travers is not yet 20, and, it seems, married Travers, who was one of the wealthiest men in the State, for his money. Before tne orange blossoms had become disarranged she regretted the step. On the day before the murder the husband attended a dinner party in the neighborhood. His attention to another lady on that occasion was the subject of a sharp reprimand by the newly-made wife on his return home. Sharp words followed, but none of the household dreamed of the horrible sequel that was to follow. About 10 o’clock the couple retired, apparently in good humor with each other. Prom what followed it seems that the wife left her partner’s side in the bed about midnight, secured a carving knife from the kitchen, returned to the chamber on the first floor, and cut her husband’s throat from ear to ear. The woman, who is of powerful physical build, then dragged the body of the murdered man from the bed to the creek, about fifty yards distant, and threw it in the water, hoping, it is supposed, by this means to conceal her connection with the revolting deed. Early yesterday morning two fishermen who were fishing in the brook discovered the body, and traced the crime by the bloody trail left on the ground in dragging the body from the house to the water’s edge to the Travers mansion. An investigation followed, when it was discovered that the woman had destroyed the bed-clothes, which were doubtless drenched in gore, by burning them. The instrument of the bloody crime was found in the search that followed driven down between the hearthstones. When arrested and brought into the presence of her murdered spouse Mrs. Travers denied all knowledge of, or connection with, his murder, bnt later in the day, it is said, when brought before the Coroner’s jury, the woman candidly confessed her guilt, and said she had determine d to become the possessor of her husband’s wealth, whom she did not love, in order that she might wed the only man for whom she had any affection. The jury took a recess in the afternoon, when the murderess seized the opportunity, when the attention of the officers who had her in charge was attracted by some one in the crowd, to commit suicide. She drew a small knife from her pocket and inflicted several stabs in the chest, bnt was detected and disarmed before she inflicted any wounds of a serious nature. The affair has created the most intense excitement in the community in which it occurred.