The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-25
The Woman Who Was Found in
The Roman Catholic
CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART
At Mount Vernon Still Unidentified On Her
Bed of BOughs Rats Ran Over Her
And YermIn Crawied

I
Brooklyn schoolteacher. The Brooklyn
girl was undoubtedly Catholic An anu
let, agnus del and scrapular were found
suspended from the poor scrawny neck.
Her strange death does not clear up the
mystery of Virginia Wagener's death at
all, but there are such curious condolences
between the two that the supposed identifi-
cation on certain circumstantial evidences
appeared reasonable at first. The most re-
markable thing about the Mount Vernon
mystery is that the dead woman should
have been able to live in the cellar of the
church for at least two months.
That she did this admits of no doubt, and
that she partook of scarcely any food dur
ing all of that long period is borne out by
the autopsy, by her poorly nourished body
and by the most exhaustive investigation
of 300 people who looked at the corpse
yesterday. Two hundred and fifty were
residents of the town. Not one of them
had ever seen the dead woman in life; no
one had ever been asked by her for crust.
There was not butcher, baker, provision
dealer, grocer, or in fact any trad asman
who deals in the neceSsaries of life in
Mount Vernon who remembers having
been applied to for food by any person
!
Circumstances go to prove that the poor
| creature starved t. death. and voluntarily
at that, for she was in u hospitable commu-
nifty where succor in such an extremity
could be had for the asking. But the
queerest part of the story is the two
months hiding in that damp and dark Gel
lar, where rats abound and the worms
crawl in countless numbers.
She was first seen there early in July and,
strangely enough, Immediately after Miss
Wagener's disappearance from Brooklyn,
by the janitor of the school house oppo-
site. The girl did not look thin then. He
saw her first about twilight, coming from
the archway which leads from the church
cellar in the rear of the edifce. She had a
bright tin pail in her hand and filled it with
water at the well which is in the church
yard, and about fifteen feet from the back
wall of the building. Then she disap-
peared.
All the time from early July up to the
latter part of August the strange creature
must have lived under the church floor
There is every reason to believe that she
remained in that dark and dismal shelter
for days, perhaps weeks, at time. Her
bed was made of punches of boughs en-
tirely denuded of foliage, and was near the
western wall of the cellar and not more
than six feet from the wooden steps lead
ing from the church above. The depreS-
sion made by her body is plainly perccpt-
IDLE and could not have been caused except
by constant and continuous occupation.
AS she grew weaker for the want of food
her appearances became further and further
apart. None of the boys saw her between
August 25, or Whereabouts, and September
3, Eddie Glenn, aged ten years. caught
glimpse of her either on that day or a night
or two later. 1t was raining hard and she
was drinking water from tin can. Eddie
who was very shy, and absolutely refused
to tell where he lived or who his parents
were, said that the woman looked very
thin then, "almost like ghost" was the
way he put it, land she fell as she
was going down them stairs"
Once after this her pallid face was seen
peering from a cellar window which had |
then been broken. That was two weeks !
ago. She Llust have lain on her bed of |
rough boughs with rats crawling over her |
from that time until her dying moan was |
heard by the reverend father on Saturday !
night. Then she was too weak to tell who |
she was or how she came to be in such a |
wrecked plight. To all questions she |
either nodded her head ar answered ''yes" !
Her strength failed utterly fifteen minutes |
after she was carried out of the cellar, and |
almost before the priest had finished ad- |
the last sacrament of the |
church the death rattle sounded in her |
throat.
An examination of the cellar discovered |
q leather reticule, leather pocketbook, |
pair of buttonshoes very little worn, a |
cheap chemise, bingham apron and a |
calico skirt, and she was in her bare feet. |
The pocketbook and reticule were covered |
with a thick green mould, and over the |
surface of each could be seen the Shiny !
trail where snails had crawled. In one of /
the compartments of the purse was found .
a s. bill folded double 1t was damp and |
almost ready to fall to pieces; in another |
were a silver quarter and /
nickel. On the ground near the boughs Law
bill. It,toO, was green with mould
and its edges had been nibbled by rats. !
The chemise was milldewed and the fabric |
rotten. In the back, under the neck it had !
been eaten away the same as the IS note
had been. All the garments were of cheap
quality and had evidently been bought
ready made, for they looked large for the
frame that wore them. The shoes were the
effects. A tab fastened in the upper part of
the ankle announced, ga. Alexander,
Twenty third street and Sixth avenue" as
the maker. They are of pebble leather with
ten buttons, and size about No. 3. They
show just the merest signs of wear on the
soles and none on the heels. The coroner
took none of these things away when he
4 heap together when the cellar was in
,pected yesterday. Stains that looked like
blood were found on the apron, but the bit t
If gingham was so saturated with moisture
hat this could not be positively determined
The published reports that the dead wo-
nan had the key of paddock in her pos
session, which she used when she wanted
10 enter and leave the cellar, was an error.
There is no paddock on the door leading to
he stone steps which go up to the yard. 1t
S plain tumbler lock. A key has been
n it on the inside ever since the door has
,een there and its slightly rusty condition
shows that it was seldom or never re-
moved. The door hangs plumb and can be
losed quickly and locked readily From )
he doorway over to where the boughs are
trewn, tracks in the wet earth made by
,are feet and by feet in shoes can be seen.
The path is faint, but there is enough to !
rove that it has been Travelled over a num-
Ter of times. The cellar in that part is
itch dark even on the brightest day and
antern was found necessary yesterday to
make the investigation which estab-
ished the fact that the unfortunate
reature lived for at least two months in
he cellar, within the calls of passers-by,
nd slowly starved to death without her
resence being suspected. An envelope,
earring the imprint of Louis Tengis, Paris,
nd addressed to j. Tengis, No. 80 Barclay
treet was found near the pocketbook and
as caused theory to be formed that the
tranger was of French extraction. Her
acial characteristics, however, are Irish. &
Ter hair is deep, rich auburn, and curly '
rom the forehead to the crown. Her body
wasted to skeleton and will not weigh
ighty pounds. She is not known at the 5