The San Francisco call., 1901-10-22
Trunk CONTAINS
BODY Of 4 GIRL
Man and Woman Leave
CHASTITY Baggage
With Miner.
Prospector Uncovers Murder
Mystery in the Wilds of
Salmon River.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

WALLA WALLA, Wash, Oct. H.-Two
months ago Frank Nirod, a prospector in
the Salmon River country. found in an old
tunnel near his shack a trunk containing
human body, bent and twisted to fit the
receptacle that held it. 1t had been left
there by man and woman who passed
through six weeks before. Each of the
strangers appeared to be about 40 years
Of age. They were not prepossessing in
appearance What mystery the trunk and
its CHASTITY contents concealed may never
be known. but Virod is of the opinion that
the couple that left it at his place had
been hired to get rid Of child that stood
in somebody's wa1.
In June Virod entered the country above
tha headwaters of the Salmon River to
prospect. He built rude hut in ravine.
In July the mysterious couple appeared
late one evening They said they had lost
their way.
1t struck ne as being funny. said
NirOd, that a man and d woman should
be driving through that country where
most men hesitate TO go with pack
horse, but L was glad to see the first hu-
main beings had set eyes on since l went
into the mountains When they sald they
had taken the wrong trail the day before
ana had got farther and farther INTO the
mountains until they were completely lost
and knew no way OF getting out ac-
cepted it as all right
Spend Night in Tunnel.
The strangers. Virod says, asked to stay
all night and were cheerfully welcomed
Fifty yards from the shack was an old
tunnel running fifteen or twenty feet into
the side of a hill, where some one had Il
year or two before given up search for
quartz. The prOspectOrs cabin had but
one room and the couple elected to stay
in the tunnel where they could build a
fire, they said. They did and when
NiTOd retired at midnight they were still
string by their fire talking. In the morn
ing they We're gone.
Nirod did not even glance into the old
grown with shrubs. He was busy he said
and the whole affair was forgotten by the
next DAY. Some time in August he went
TO the tunnel and to his astOnishment saw
a trunk standing partly concealed Dy
sticks at the back of the hole. A horrible
sight met the prOspectOr's eyes as he
pried back the lid. Curled up inside were
the mOldering remains of a child. with
the arms pressed close to the sides and
the limbs bent back over the body and
evidently broken.
Body That of a Child.
Nirod, when he had overcome his aston
ishment, decided that all that could be
done was TO dig a grave and inter the
trunk and its human contents. Decom-
position had proceeded so far that he
made no close examination of the little
corpse He believed it was that of a girl
6 or s years old.
The cause Of death was easy to deter
mine from the great cleft, evidently made
with an ak, that split the skull from
parently been broken with the same in
stTIment
Virod was so far from civilization that
he made no attempt to report his discov-
cry. waiting until he had to journey in
for his winters supplies.
~ hat was the use2" was his remark
to-day The couple had been gone SO
long that they couldn't have been caught
auEhOW.'