The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1896-05-28
MRS, FROST OF CA9S COUNTY, MO.
browns her THREE CHILDREN.
SHE THEN KILLS HERSELF.
water and Cut Her own Throat
The Husband and Father, Well
to-Do Farmer, Was Away
From Home at the Time
Temporarily Insane

HARRIsoNvILLE, Mo-, May az
"Three children and woman muir
dered Bring coroner and come quick. "
This was the wording Of telegram
received here from Cleveland, I'm the
western part OF this county, at s
o'clock yesterday morning. and Deputy
Sheriff L. NJ. Woodbridge, acting sher-
III In Sheriff Iatton's absence at JEFF
ferson City, Prosecuting Attorney A.
A. Whitsitt and Coroner +. L. Runne-
berger left for the scene
When the officials arrived they
learned that Mrs. Frost, known TO her
neighbors as Mart" and liked gem
orally, drowned her three children in
q barrel of water Monday night and
cut her throat Her motive is un-
known aud it is thought she must
have been temporarily demented.
Frost, the husband and father, is n
well-to-do farmer and owns 800 or 200
acres OF land north Of Cleveland vll-
lage. lie was absent in Kansas City
at the time of the occurrence.
According to the best of evidence
the family relations of the Frosts were
the very best, SC il can be easily
imagined that never has the ueighbor-
hood been so thoroughly shocked as
when the word went from house to
house, from village to village, that a
terrible crime had been committed.
In an instant the house was crowded
with sympathizers, horrified at the
ghastly sight that met their gaze.
There on the kitchen floor lay the
wife and mother in pool of blood,
with her throat cut from ear to ear.
She was dead On the back porch,
just inside the kitchen door, lay the
eldest child, Ella, also silent in death.
her garments to the waist were wet,
and on the right ear was an ugly
bruise She had evidently been hit
with some blunt instrument and
then held in the water until
the breath had slowly ebbed away.
Gently the mother took her
first born, as is the supposition, from
the water and carefully laid her upon
the porch, taking care that the little
body should be far enough away from
the door sill TO let the kitchen door
swing free. II is thought the other
| two children were asleep, although
their clothes had not been removed.
| II is thought the mother went into the
house and picked up her baby boy,
/ but little over a year old, carried
him to the barrel, three-quarters full
of water, showed him to the bottom
and there held him until he was dead.
Once more she went back and COM
PEELED the second child to give up its
| life.
Mrs. Frost then stepped inside the
door, as everything indicates, and
drew the razor across her throat.
1t seems almost certain that this is
"A 1.s.
man, as she evidently argued that the
barrel would not hold all three chill
dren, so she put the largest out of the
way first to make room for the others
Mr.. Frost arrived here at i2:4(
o'clock from Kansas City. He says he
can give no explanation of his wife:
act, unless she was temporarily in
sane. He appears 10 be heartbrolSeI
over the affair.
Martin Frost is a man probably 81
years of age. He, with his family
consisting of a wife and eight chill
dren, has lived in the southwest par
of the county for nearly twenty years
Probably no feeder is seen oftene
about the Kansas City stock yard
than Martin Frost He is looked upoI
as more than well.to-do. His house,
big white frame, is surrounded by
beautiful farm of over 300 acres. Mod
ern farm appliances are to be seen ol
every hand
Five of the Frost children, thre
Urls and two boys, were the result o
his first marriage. The first wife die
several years ago, and he marrie
! Miss Mollie Russell. Three childre
, came-Ella, aged years; Carrie,
years, and William, l3 months.