Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-07
A TERRIBLE CRIME.
The Mutilated Body of q Pretty Ger
man Girl Found in Her Room
WITH A DOZEN STAB WOUNDS
In Her Neck and Breast, and the Head
Almost Severed.
NO CLEW TO THE MURDERER

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH
CHESTER, Pa, Dec. 6.-Emma Pftzen-
myer, the pretty young German woman who
was found dead in her room, her head almost
severed from her body aud with dozen
stab wounds in her neck and breast, is now
known to have been murdered. She
was % years old and lived with
her sister, Mrs Schmidt. the wife
of grocer. She had been In
this country two years. She was a bright
girl, but was little wild, so the neighbors
say. On Wednesday night there was ball
in hall not far from the grocery over
which Schmidt and his wife and the young
woman lived. Mrs. Schmidt and her sister
attended it and left Mr.. Schmidt to mind
the baby.
At about II 80 o'clock Miss Pftzenmyer
returned home, at the request of Mrs.
Schmidt, to see how the baby was getting
on. She found the infant asleep in its
fathers arms, and started to return to
the hall. She LEFT the side door
open, through which she could pass
from the street to her room without being
seen by Schmidt. She met her sister at the
ball again and returned to her key to the
house. She disappeared then. Mrs.
Schmidt thought she had joined in the
dancing, and did not look for her until after
1 o'clock. She was nowhere to be found.
Mrs. Schmidt concluded she had got tired
and gone home, and she went home alone.
Schmidt was in the back room holding the
baby.
Discovery of the Dead Body.
She asked him where her sister was, and
he said he did not know. She had been
twice to see the baby and was probably in
her room. Mrs. Schmidt went upstairs and
found the young woman lying on the floor of
her room in front of the bureau, dead. The
carpet underneath her was soaked with
blood. There was a cheese-knife smeared
with blood on the floor near her. 1t had
blade nearly two inches wide and IL long.
1t was one of the knives that had been used
in the grocery.
1t was at first supposed that the girl had
committed suicide. A physician examined
the wounds in her neck and breast, and de-
clared that they could not have been made
by the cheese knife. They were
made by smaller knife. Three of the
six wounds were in such a position that
they couldn't have been inflicted by herself.
The cut which nearly severed her head, the
doctor declared was made after the girl was
dead.
Her windpipe was not shrunk, as it would
have been had it been severed while she was
alive. The knife was examined, and it was
found that the blood on it had been smeared
over it. The stains were not such as would
have been made if tine knife had been used
to Inflict the wounds. A pair of mems
socks, soaked with blood, were found on the
floor OF the room. The murderer had
left no other clew. After the finding of the
body Mrs. Schmidt remembered that on the
way to the ball a young man whom she did
not know spoke to her sister, and walked a
distance with her. They talked to each
other in whispers. Who this young man
was no one knows.
Jealousy the Suspected Motive.
From the fact that the girl left the door
open when she left home for the ball the
second time, it is thought that she
might have made an appointment with
some one, possibly with the mys-
terious young man and took him to her
room, and then he murdered her The girl
is known to have had many lovers, and the
authorities think that it was one of these
who killed ner in fit OF jealousy.
The murderer, after the killing, arranged
things in the room and smeared the cheese
knife with blood so as to hide his crime, by
making it appear that the girl had taken
her own life. He successfully fooled the
city authorities of Chester, and they
have given no aid to the District Attorney,
and the Coroner is investigating the case.
Mr.. and Mrs. Schmidt are under police sur
veillance. The county authorities will not
permit Schmidt to be seen by any newspa-
per men, nor will thev make public any
thing he may have told them.
The body of the girl has been at the
house OF Otto Walther's, near Upland,
since the autopsy and was buried from
there to-day. While the funeral sery-
ice was going on both Mr..
and Mrs. Schmidt became hysterical.
At the grave Schmidt had to be held
to keep him from jumping in on the casket.
After the funeral the body was taken up to
be examined by DR.. Formal, who has the
reputation Of being the best expert in
murder cases in this part Of the country.
He lives in Philadelphia. Corner Bullock
had sent for him to get his testimony to the
fact that the girl had been murdered.