Popular.com

August 6, 1935

Bride of less than a year and an expectant mother, Mrs. Mary James, 27 of La Crescento,

was found mysteriously dead in the garden of her home last night, with her head submerged in a fish pond.

Tragically, the body was disclosed by the beam of a flashlight as the woman's husband and a friend who had accompanied him home to dinner searched the place for her.

Authorities of the Foothill City who investigated said they believe Mrs. James fainted while gazing into the fish pond and then fell face forward, breaking the screen covering it.

The husband, Robert James, operator of a Los Angeles beauty parlor,

arrived home after dark accompanied by a friend, James Pemberton of Los Angeles.

A note in the room of the home apparently left by friends who had called during the day

and failed to find Mrs. James in the house read,

quote, Why don't you stay at home? Unquote. The house was open, so James and Pemberton

guessed that Mrs. James was somewhere about the place. They began a search, and Pemberton's

flashlight revealed the body. Married last May, Mrs. James was an expectant

mother. During a fainting spell, it was believed. She may have slipped and struck her head as she

fell into the concrete water basin. James told officers that the last time he saw his wife was early

Monday morning when he left for work in Los Angeles.

That night he and his friends came to La Crescenta ready for a barbecue supper.

There, they discovered the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Deputy Sheriff's Killian and Gray continued questioning Robert James

and intimate acquaintances of the couple in an effort to bring

to light circumstances which led to the death of the young matron. Among others with whom they

talked was Miss Esther Templeton, 24, beauty parlor operator, who told officers she was engaged

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