Frederic Defrouville

Frederick Defrouville (c. 1850 - April 4, 1883) was an noted American murderer.

Defrouville murdered his wife, Andrea Defrouville, nee Andrea Marie Wolstrup, on April 4, 1883 in Washington, D. C., and then took his own life. Like many such events of murder or suicide, suspected marital infidelity was the motivating factor. At the time of the murder/suicide, Frederick Defrouville was a clerk in the Agriculture Dept. and his wife was also employed in the Department of Agriculture as a translator, employment she secured from her association with Senator Benjamin Harvey Hill. Previously, Mrs. Defrouville had worked in the dead letters section of the Post Office, a job that she secured after immigrating from Denmark in 1871, through her connection to the former U.S. consul to that country. An inquest determined that Mrs. Defrouville was giving German lessons to an 18 year old neighbor when her estranged husband entered the residence and shot Mrs. Defrouville and then himself with a revolver. Mrs. Defrouville in buried in the Congressional Cemetery and Mr. Defrouville in Glenwood Cemetery.

Sources and further reading

 * U.S. Federal Census, 1880, Washington, D.C. (National Archives, Film No. T9-0124, p. 97C).


 * Baltimore Sun, April 4, 1883.


 * Washington Post, April 6, 1883.


 * Washington Evening Star, June 16, 1883.