PHELPS, Ruth Crumley - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Mellott - Funeral services for Mrs. Ruth Phelps will be conducted at 2 p.m. (EST) Tuesday at the Crumley Funeral Home at Hillsboro. Rev. Jack Eitlebuss, pastor of the Mellott Congregational Christian Church, will be in charge. Burial will be in the Wingate Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home Monday afternoon and evening. Mrs. Phelps was found choked to death Tuesday morning in her home at Klamath Falls, Ore. Her husband, Arthur Arnold Phelps, has confessed her slaying, according to Oregon State Police. Mrs. Phelps was a former resident of this community.

Klamath Falls, Ore - Arthur A. Phelps, 43, Klamath Falls electrician

accused of strangling his wife, was arraigned on a first degree murder

charge Wednesday.  A preliminary hearing was scheduled Saturday.  State

police s id Phelps admitted choking his wife, Morene Ruth Phelps, 40,

because he thought she was unfaithful.  Police said he called a relative

to come over to take care of his two sons, 9 and 10 years old, then

drove off in the family car.  He was arrested several hours later,

driving on the outskirts of town.  He is being held without bond.  A

sister-in-law, Mrs. Floyd Phelps, said she found the victim dead in her

bed Tuesday after Phelps called her.  She said Phelps left a note saying

he had choked his wife and planned to kill himself. After his arrest

Phelps told police he had tried to asphyxiate himself by lying beside

his car with a tarpaulin thrown over the exhaust pipe.  Friends said

Phelps had appeared upset recently. The body of Mrs. Phelps was to be

returned to Mellott, Ind., where she was born and where she attended

school.  She moved from Indiana to California in 1942 and was married in

1943.  Survivors include her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Forest Crumley of

Mellott, and two sisters, Mrs. Robert Harlan of Lafayette and Mrs.

Edwards Sparks of Indianapolis.