Marin County Deaths

Transcribed by Betty Wilson

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MURDER OF MRS. ROSANNA JENSEN
	Rosanna Jensen, wife of Hans Jensen, living near Novato, was 
found in a small slough in the marsh, about a quarter of a mile from her 
dwelling, on June 29, 1866, where it appeared that she had been conveyed 
after being murdered by some person or persons unknown.  The facts are 
these:  On the Sunday morning previous (June 24th) to the finding of the body, 
some trifling altercation, of a family-jar character, had occurred between Mrs. 
Jensen and her husband, but was apparently settled, and harmony restored.  The 
husband left home at about ten o�clock in the morning to go to Novato for meat, 
stopping on the route at two of his neighbors, with each of whom he spent about 
an hour and a half.  On returning in the evening in time to attend the milking 
of his cows, he found his wife absent.  After looking about the premises and not 
finding her, he concluded that she had gone to one of the neighbors and would 
soon come home.  She not returning that night, Jensen got a neighbor and friend 
to stay at his house and attend to his affairs, while he made inquiry and search 
in the neighborhood.  Finding no trace of her, and feeling alarmed, he, on 
Wednesday, concluded it was best to inform the people of the neighborhood of her 
disappearance, and ask their help in a general and more thorough search.  On 
Thursday morning the neighbors assembled at his house and commenced a general 
search through the gulches and over the hills and marsh, and on Friday the body 
was found as above stated.  Jensen was arrested on suspicion of having committed 
the deed.  Upon examination before Justice Haven, no evidence appearing against 
him, he was discharged.  The circumstance which appeared to direct suspicion on 
the husband was, that is if the above statement, which was his, be true, she 
must have been murdered and the body carried to the place where found after ten 
o�clock, and before his return on Sunday; and the exposure of the place to view 
by persons passing is such that no one would have ventured to convey it there 
for concealment in the day time, therefore it seemed that she must have been 
murdered either on Saturday night or Sunday morning.  According to his statement 
there were three hundred and forty-six dollars concealed in the bed, of which 
his wife had a knowledge, which were also taken.

History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, 
Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, 
Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880