The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-02
FLUNG INTO RIVER
SAD FATE OF AN INNOCENT MUIR
DERED CHILD.
% hide the Shame of Some Heartless Girl
the Care of Her Offspring a Little In
FAINT Was Weighted Down With Flat
Riyer-Body was Found With the Arms
Tied With a Cord-DetectIvesa are Hunt
ing for the Criminal
ing for the Criminal,

ing IOr the Criminal.
Lying dead on a'taole in the private
office Of the coroner yesterday was an
infant boy with CARDS ned around his
neck and body and tied TO them was a
fiat smoothing iron that weighed nine
pounds.
It was sad to see that sight. Some
able bodied man or woman with in
stinct inferior to the brute had bound
it hand and foot, as if it were a giant,
and flung it into the river in hopes Of
covering I'D the dark secret of some
woman. Murder cannot be hidden,
and the water viii give up its dead The
last has been verified and so will the
former within the next forty-eight
hours if detective skill can accomplish
IT.
1t was about 1870 yesterday when o.
Fencetemaker Of the bridge and build
ing department of the Missouri Pacific
road had his attention called to a float
ing body in the water under and TO the
south of the Missouri Pacific bridge
that spans the Arkansas river above
Douglas avenue. He invest igated and
found the object to be baby. He i'm
mediately called the attention OF NJ. r.
Diver to it and he went at once and
notified the sheriff and the coroner.
When the sheriff and his deputy arriy-
ed the former removed his shoes, waded
in and took the body of the infant from
the water and laid it on the bank,
where coroner's jury viewed it. The
body was then taken to the sheriff's Of
f1ce, where 1t was covered with a piece
OF a gunny sack until the undertaken
took charge OF it.
Al O'Clock the coroner proceeded TO
hold an inquest and two witnesses were
examined. They were Mr.. Fenceta-
maker and Mr.. Diver. whose story was
in substances related. County Attorney
Davis then asked the coroner 10 post
pone the inquest until Monday, at
which tfme he expected further light
on the dark deed.
The baby was a well developed little
one with dark curly hair and evidently
had never been dressed. A physician
might have been at the birth of IT, but
1t is very doubtful. 1t might have been
still born, but that also is very doubt
ful-in fact it is entirely improbable. 1t
was thrown in the river and weighted
down with the smoothing iron about
eighteen feet from the bank. The SUD-
position is that it was flung in and by
a man. Whenit was found the feet and
hands Were under the water with the
mead entirely under the water The lit
tie body danced on the water with the
ripple and the face was as peaceful as
IL the little lad was asleep. The skin
was discolored and evidently the child
had been in the water some three or
four days. In fact an object was seen
about the same place about that time
and the water was then higher and no
investigations were then made.
The grand law OF civilization Is that
the weak must be protected in SITS life
equally with the strong, and while the
baby was never conscious of that civil
ization or never saw its kind yet its
death will be avenged. The county at
torney, the sheriff and the police officers
propose to ferret out the guilty murder
er of this poor child and bring him 10
justice. No expense will be spared and
Detectives Sutton and Wood were set
10 work on the case Immediately after
the body was found, for the sympathy
Of all for the child's fate was so pro-
nounced that the coroner felt ii and de-
termined to find the criminal.
Detective Sutton has a good clue to
the perpetrators of the crime and some
arrests will be made today or tonight.
In the interest of justice. some import
ant facts have been withheld from pub
LEGATION by the police.