The sun., 1901-05-16
MYSTERIOUS MURDER CASE.
CENSUS BUREAU CLERK SHOT IN HIS
ROOM IN WASHINGTON.

The Most Important Ciue Is In the Testimony
Of Neishbor. who Says That Hs Saw .
woman In Night Clothes Leave tho Room
by q window and Descend the Fire Escape.
| WASHINGTON, May i5.-The entire WASH
ington detective force is engaged on a
murder case which has oil the contradictions
| and mysterious elements OF the Sherlock
Holmes stories. An uproar was heard In q
| family hotel-1he Kenmore-last night
at about 2 o'clock. Three shots were
| fred; voice cried twice for help. wild
commotion ensued. and In the morning
| the police found in one Of the hotel rooms
the dead body Of James Seymour Ayres
Jr., q years old, Of unoGending disposition
and apparently unblemished record. He
| had been shot three times.
The only clue lies in the testimony OF
neighbor, who says that he saw a woman
leave the window Of the young mans room,
| and in several blood stains found on the
| fire escape and along tho corridor. NO
arrests have been made. Policemen. de-
tectives and newspaper men have crowded
| through the hotel all day. Every guest
| has been examined more than once The
neighbors have been questioned As near
as can be learned the young man had no
attachments Of any sort. There was no
motive which could reasonably prompt
murder. and nobody knows anything more
| than the meagre outline given above
Tho victim was clerk in the Census
Bureau and was appointed from. Michigan.
His father, j. 8. Ayres, Sr.. Is an insurance
agent and lives at Grand Rapids The
| youth was student In a dental college
and had jlllt passed his final examination.
| He was known to the ether guests only
through casual conye;sation about the
| dinner table, and through their association
with him at the few dances given through
the winter BY everybodys testimony
he bore himself with dignity and Kept
entirely free from such alliances IA that
suggested by the murder. Last night
| he returned to tho hotel az midnight. spoke
casually to two or three young men about
the lobby and retired,
The pistol shots and the cries for help
ayoke nearly all the boarders. Heads
were thrust from all the windows at once
and two or three men called out, WHATS
| wrong down thereY" A voice, evidently
that Of a woman. replied, Il don't see any
| thing here" and, a minute later. I've
heard some pistol shots" There was some
! scattered comment, the windows began
10 close one by one, and as no one seemed
| inclined to investigate, no investigation
WAS made The woman in the hotel could
be heard dragging chairs 20 wedge them
under the door knobs and that was the end
| of the disturbance.
In the morning. az Ayres did not respond
when called. q policeman was sent ior'
| When the door had been broken open the
vounp man was seen doubled forward
in a pool Of blood near the window HIS
undershirt. his only covering. was stained
by blood and powder. He had been shot
| three times, once Just over the heart. once
| in the left arm and once in the left thigh.
| 4 report was made that he had con mitted
With the arrival Of the Coroner. however,
| tho case took on different aspect
| torn fan was picked up from the floor and
| the pistol found on the trunk within ABOUT
| three feet of tho body. Both the barrel ana
trigger of the pistol were covered with
| blnnJ but the handle was quite clean.
| Three of its six cartridges had been flred.
| Outside on the fire escape two clots OF
blood were found in such places that they
| could not have been caused by blood spuIt-
| inc from Ayres'S wound Moreover, the
TWO shots in his left side had entered from
hehind and inclined toward the right.
| detectives were summoned 70 examine
| tho hotel and question the guests. Down
tbe Are escape two flights were discovered
several other blood stains then two, or three
near the window. inside the corridor, and
| then a blotCh, such as might have been
| caused by the brushing OF ploou-stalhed
garment
or the versions given by the young mans
| Celloy boarders only two were noteworthy.
| Tho Young woman who occupied the room
next his. Miss Kate Lawlus, an employee
in the Bureau Of Engraving and Printing,
! aays she slept throughout the whole dis
urhancc, and Miss Mary Minas, who Is a
clerk in the Census Bureau and has the
room on the other side OF that occupied
| by Ayres, says she distinctly heard the shots
and confusion, but was too frightened 10
| make any outcry
Thomas VI Baker. a clerk in tho Fish
| Commission. has Il room In house near the
| kenmore, from which he saw more than
| nny one else lie is confident that woman,
| in her night dress, stepped out Of the win
| dow in Ayres's room. descended the fire
escape slowly. and left the iron stairway
| al The point marked by tho blood stains.
| Mrs. Warfeld, wife Of the hotel proprietor,
volunteered the theory that Ayers had
shot himself accidentally andlhad thenkilled
! himself because Of the great suffering that
| followed Both Mrs. Warileld and her
| husband have left tho Kenmore and gone
TO another hotel under their management
| the Iakoma Park House, In Iakoma Park.
| Md