Boat crews braved wintry winds today in a river search for the body of Dr. Marx D. Sterbcow, whose wild rage Tuesday wrote a murder-suicide ending to his
marriage. The greying, stocky child specialist, who was known affectionately as "Sterby" to hundreds of small patients, stabbed his wife to deat-h with a carving knift yesterday and then drove to the Huey Long bridge and leaped into the river.
Today, while harbor police scanned the murky waters, the body of Mrs. Sterbcow, 27, was being flown high across Western deserts and mountains to be buried by relatives in Los Angeles.
Two young children of the couple, Arthur, 3, and Anne, 2, were turned over by police to the custody of the doctor's brother, Sol T. Sterbcow, 6550 Gen. Diaz. BITTER DUTY
Coroner Nicholas Chetta, who knew both the doctor and his wife as friends, and had treated Both as patients, had the bitter duty Tuesday of viewing her body at the murder scene. She was killed while on a visit to the apartment at 3634 Upperline where-:she had lived with the doctor before moving to the Claiborne Towers apartments.
Police said Mrs. Sterbeow had gone to the apartment in her big yellow convertible Tuesday morning accompanied by Mrs. Mae Meyers, 22, also of Claiborne Towers, wife of a Baptist Hospital, intern.
Mrs. Sterbcow had asked the doctor for her silver punch bowl and goblets. "To. her surprise," said a police investigator "he had let her take it to the car." He also left her and Mrs. Meyers carry out two chromium chairs, Then Mrs. Sterbcow returned to the apartment alone. Dr. Chetta said that Dr. Sterb-ow then attacked her with the knife. "There were signs of a furious struggle. He almost cut her head off." Dr. Chetta said he treated Mrs. Sterbcow after a suicide attempt it the apartment two years ago. He said she took an overdose of WLeeping pills.
Friends and former patients Waid Dr. Sterbcow himself suf-ered a nervous breakdown some-5ime ago and had to abandon his Practice for several months. Mrs. sterbcow, a native of North "Carolina, was a former beauty queen. They were married Jan. 12, 1949 At Gulfport. ..."SAD AND UPSET"
"He was handsome. A big grey-haired fellow. Sometimes, talking to parents, he seemed' a little sad and upset. When we became friends, he talked sometimes about his troubles.
"For years he had been a bachelor, till almost 40. Then he met a beautiful girl at Atlantic City in a beauty contest. Later they were married,
"Sometimes, Half joking, he used to say 'I promised her six servants and that she could stay in bed till 1 p. m. every day if she wanted to. After our children came, I wanted her to get serious and she still held me to those luxury promises I made.'"
Sterbcow took a pre-med course at Tulane, an M.D. at LSU. His wife had been married once previously....Mrs. Sterbcow, in her own version of the tragic marriage, stated in a divorce petition early this year that the doctor cursed and reviled her before the servants....Dr. Chetta said that the final blowup produced a savage onslaught. The doctor left part of the;. carving knife buried in her chest before driving to the bridge. It was a wild ride. He blew his horn for other drivers to clear his path. The doctor stopped, left the motor running, and jumped.
PHOTO CAPTION READS: DR. MARX STERBCOW
