People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1893 — TRAGEDY IN ILLINOIS. [ARTICLE]

TRAGEDY IN ILLINOIS.

A Citizen of Bracevllle Kills His Wife and Himself White- Insane. Braoeville, 111., Jane 6. —Early on Sunday evening, in the western part of Braceville, in a small hpusq, a sight was discovered which made the hardest hearted turn away sick and horrified. Seraphim Die Median, a Belgian and a miner, and his wife were the subjects. The wife was lying across the be'd dead, with a great gaping wound from a shotgun in hear right breast, while a babe, not over 4 months old, was at her breast as if just taken from a crib near by. On the opposite side of the room lay De Median with his brains blown, out by the same instrument of death, which was found lying beside him. The first to come upon this horrible scene was a boy 12 years old, son of Mrs. De Median, who had been working in a field near by and came to the house for supper. He gave the alarm to neighbors, anil soon the house and yard were filled: with incomers. .Nothing but circumstantial evidence could be obtained, but everything pointed to the fact that De Median first shot his wife and then, to escape the punishment of the law, took his own life. De Median was thought to be partially insane for some time before the crime, but no violence was made known to anyone in town until Sunday night, when the boy stated that some time ago his stepfather had said that he would some time shoot his wife and then kill himself. Coroner Ferguson was called, but the jury were unable to determine anything beyond the mere fact that both killed and that the murderer and suicide was De Median.