OBIT: Helen (WIRBIRK) BURKETT, 1940, Berlin R.D., Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
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HELEN BURKETT

Husband Claims Shooting Wife Was Accidental
Mrs. Helen Burkett of Berlin R.D. 1, Died in Community Hospital

  Mrs. Helen Burkett, aged 22, wife of Melvin Burkett, of R.D. 1, Berlin, Pa., 
died at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Community Hospital at Somerset, as the result of a 
shooting accident in their home Sunday morning at about 3:30 o'clock.
  According to the story told the officers by the husband, Mr. and Mrs. Burkett 
returned to their home near Roxbury about 2 a.m. Sunday after spending Saturday 
evening in Somerset.  When they reached home the heater fire had gone out and 
instead of retiring they decided to start the fire and first attempt to heat the 
home.
  Some time later, possibly about 3:30, after the fire had been started, Burkett 
noticed that his single barrel 12 gauge shotgun was in a corner of the room, not 
in accustomed place by the door.  He explained to the officers that his wife had 
cleaned the house Saturday and apparently misplaced it.
  Burkett told the officers that he walked to the corner, picked up the gun by 
the barrel and with his wife walking beside him started towards the door.  
Suddenly, why or how, he could not explain, the gun went off, and virtually the 
full force of the charge ripped into Mrs. Burkett's right temple.  She dropped 
to the floor unconscious.
  The Burkett home is located near Roxbury, and immediately after the shooting 
Mr. Burkett summoned the help of his nearest neighbor, Victor B. Glessner, who 
called an ambulance to take Mrs. Burkett to the hospital.  Burkett and Glessner 
accompanied Mrs. Burkett to Somerset where the husband surrendered to the 
officers.
  The husband remained a prisoner in the county jail New Years Day, held there 
on a technical charge of suspicion, while state and county officers continued 
their investigation into the death of his wife.  Officers said his detention was 
a routine matter, pending official disposition of the case at the inquest.  So 
far as could be learned their investigation tended to bear out the husband's 
story of how Mrs. Burkett was injured.
  On Tuesday afternoon a coroner's jury absolved Burkett of all responsibility 
for the shotgun blast that killed his wife.  Weak and haggard, Burkett collapsed 
three times while attempting to relate to the jury how the accident happened.
  After Deputy Sheriff Karl Hare assisted Burkett from the room the inquest 
continued and almost without deliberation the jury of six men returned a verdict 
completely absolving the husband of all blame.
  Mrs. Burkett was the former Helen Wirbrick, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph 
Wirbrick of Kentner, Pa.  She is survived by her parents, husband, a brother, 
Fred of Kantner, and a sister, Dorothy, at home.
  Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon in Kantner, with the Rev. A. L. 
Thompson officiating.  Interment in the Stoystown I.O.O.F. Cemetery was in 
charge of A. C. Berkebile, Hooversville mortician.

Meyersdale Republican, January 4, 1940