THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995          TAG: 9509270436
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: CURRITUCK                          LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

HUSBAND, 46, HELD IN SLAYING OF WIFE, 66, IN MOYOCK HOME

Currituck County police are investigating the circumstances that led to the slaying of a Moyock woman.

The body of Mary Francis Lumsden, 66, was found Friday morning in the bathroom of the Guinea Road home she shared with her husband, Henry Gregory Lumsden.

After being questioned by members of the Currituck County Sheriff's Department and State Bureau of Investigation, Henry Lumsden, 46, confessed early Sunday to killing his wife, a police spokesperson said Tuesday.

Lumsden, a City of Chesapeake sanitation worker, has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond at the Currituck County Jail.

At a District Court hearing Monday, Judge Edgar Barnes advised Lumsden of his rights and appointed Elizabeth City attorney H.P. Williams Jr. to represent him.

Lumsden reportedly called the county's emergency services Friday morning to report that his wife was not breathing, said Susan Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Currituck County Sheriff's Department.

Paramedics found the woman's body about 6 a.m., clothed in nightwear and draped face-down over the bathtub, Johnson said.

A preliminary autopsy report indicated she died of asphyxiation.

Lumsden told police he killed his wife, but he did not immediately give a motive, Johnson added.

Other details of the case were not available Tuesday.

``We're still investigating the circumstances behind it and what happened,'' Johnson said.

Lumsden is scheduled for a probable cause hearing Oct. 11 in Currituck District Court, said Sheila Romm, the county's clerk of Superior Court.

The last person to be charged with murder in Currituck County was Jeffrey Bryan Williams, who was convicted of the June 1993 shooting death of his uncle, Larry A. Williams, at a family residence in Aydlett.

Williams is in jail awaiting a hearing for an alleged parole violation, Johnson said.

KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST by CNB