Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-02-15
TRACES OF col. FOUNTAIN.
Report Of Finding Of Blood stains on
Trail COnfirmed-Allt the COlOnel's
Horses FOund-lmprOper
Warrants.

The report that blood stains had been
discovered on the Fountain trail has been
confirmed. Mr.. j. l.. Bell, of the White
Oaks railroad syndicate, says to the Ell
Paso Times:
son Thursday morning I was in the
camp of the searchers, sixty-five miles
north of Ell Paso. Mr.. Van Patten and a
son of Col. Fountain at the head of thirty
five men were taking a short rest Mr..
Van Patten told me that Col. Fountain
had turned out of the road toward the
east at point between Chalk Hill No.
and Chalk Hill No. 2, the hills being three
miles apart and about sixty-fve miles
found pool of blood in the old road
where the colonels blackboard tracks
turned out. But there were no signs of
struggle left in the soft chalk. The grey
horse which Col. Fountain was leading
showed up next day at little ranch at
the edge of the sands, two and a half
miles west of Luna's we'll. The second
horse turned up at Gouley's and the third
at Adam Dieter's ranch, one mile this
side of Tularosa. All of the animals
were covered with foam and dust and
gave evidence of having been ridden
hard. Mr.. Van Patteu and his posse will
scour the country for 100 miles in every
direction from Chalk Hill. He feels con-
fident that Col. Fountain and his little
boy have been murdered and their bodies
buried. One part of the White Sands
lies within six miles of the place where
the blood was found, and the bodies could
have been hid in the sands, which, like
the waters Of great lake, would exhibit
on their surface no sign that would indi-
cate the location of the buried bodies"
The White Oaks Eagle of Thursday
says:
"a report was circulated here yester-
day to the effect that five masked men
had brought Col. Fountains little boy
into Tularosa and left him there stating
that they had killed his father and thrown
the body in we'll. We are unable to
trace the report to any reliable source
and none of our people credit it,"
IMPROPERLY ISSUED WARRANTS.
News comes from Las Cruces that
warrants we're recently issued by Justice
Valdez for the arrest of Oliver Lee, Billy
McNew and Jack Tucker, brother of
Deputy Sheriff Tom Tucker, of this
county, charging them with completely
in the kidnapping of Col. Fountain and
his son.
When this surprising Information
leaked out Oliver Lee, Deputy Sheriff
Tucker, who was in Santa Fe when Foun-
tain disappeared, and others went to
Justice Valdez for information on the
sub ject; hut, while admitting that he had
issued the warrants, Valdez at first re.
fused to tell who had applied for them or
to whom they had been given.
Lee demanded a legal opportunity to
answer any charges against him. He
then went in person, accompanied by
Tom Tucker, the latter representing his
brother, to District Attorney Young, laid
the facts before him and ASKED that efforts
be made to withdraw the warrants from
unauthorized hands and that they be con-
fided to legal officers.
The district attorney sent for Sheriff
Ascarate and Judge 8. B. Newcomb, both
OF whom condemned the action taken by
Valdez and agreed to do all In their