The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-06
The Rev. w. c. Rabe and Augusta
Busch Asphyxiated I'm the Pas
tors study mt Omaha.
ROOM WAS FILLED WITH GAS
DEATH OF THE COUPLE BELIEVED
TO HAVE BEEN ACCIDENTAL.
Bodies Discovered by q JanitOr-BOth
of the Victims Held In High Es-
TEEN in Church Circles.

OMAHA, Neb., Nov. 5.-Clasped in each
others arms, lying on the floors of the pas
tors study in the German Baptist Church.
Oscar Berndes, janitor Of the church, early
to-day discovered the dead bodies of Rev.
w. c. Rabe, pastor and Augusta Busch, a
missionary and assistant to the pastor.
Death had been caused by asphyxiation.
The room was filled with gas, q jet and a
burner of a small stove being partly turned
On. The woman's head was on some cush-
ions. They had evidently lain in that posi-
ton for several hours.
There seems to be little doubt that death
was accidental. 1t is believed that the pair
had fallen asleep, the stove flame blew out
and the gas escaped. The bodies were rigid
and stiff and death had evidently occurred
during the early hours of the previous
evening. The coroner took charge of the
remains and will hold an inquest to-mor-
row.
Miss Busch roomed at the home of jan
itor Berndes, No. 1885 Seward street, and
Mr.. Rabe lived at the home of Harry Dirk
sen, at No. 2732 Parker street. Yesterday
morning Miss Busch went to the Dirksen
home and remained there all day and until
about o'clock in the evening engaged in
sewing. She left for her home at the
Berndes residence alone, and 1t is thought
probable she met the preacher while re-
turning home, and that the two then went
to the study in the rear of the church,
where the tragedy occurred. They had al
ways been good friends, but no stronger
feeling is said TO have made itself apparent
to those who knew them. Mrs. Berndes
supposed the dead woman was in her room
until Mrs. Schalkau, housekeeper for Rev.
Rabe, came and said Mr.. Rabe had not
been at home during the night. Then it
was discovered that Miss Busch had not
occupied her room.
Each failing to return home during the
night occasioned a search for them this
morning The janitor went to the pastor s
study and found the door locked and the
key on the inside. From a crack beneath
the door he smelled the escaping gas. He
summoned police officer and the door was
broken open. In the center of the very
small study the bodies lay, the heads just
a few feet from the door. The woman's
face was covered with froth and had begun
to turn purple. One gas jet above the pas
tors table was partly turned of and from
a stove gas was slowly escaping. The door
from the study opening into the auditorium
of the church was slightly open and the
auditorium was filled with gas. The officer
notified the coroner and the remains were
taken to the morgue.
1t was thought at first that the two had
committed suicide, for on the table was
an open letter, a neatly arranged bouquet,
hat. Miss Busch's gloves and handkerchief,
and her jacket neatly folded on the back of
a chair. The room was orderly, as though
IL had just been cleaned. The letter was
written in German, and when interpreted
was found to be an answer to another letter
which Mr.. Rabe had received. There was
nothing in it to indicate that the two had
intended taking their lives.
Around the front and side of the church
building, at Twenty-sixth and Seward
streets, large crowd stood as the bodies
were taken from the building To Miss
Ottolie Noerling particularly was the death
of the two a shock, and she was almost
Frustrated. Miss Noerling is about eigh-
teen years of age and arrived In Omaha on
route TO Denver. She stopped off for few
days to visit Miss Busch She arrived at
the room of the dead woman just as the
news was taken there that she was dead.
Mr.. Rabe was fifty-four years old and
came to Omaha from Buffalo, N. Y, when
he was chosen pastor of the German Bap-
fist Church. In New York he left wife,
who is attending a missionary school, and
one son, Carl, of whom he often spoke to
his friends. He was held in high esteem
by his congregation. He roomed with two
housekeeper. The parents of the young
men recently died, and Mr.. Rabe remained
with the boys to take care of them.
Miss Busch was thirty-one years old and
had been missionary in Omaha for the
last five years. She came here from Chi
cago. She. too, was held in high esteem
~ +.
believed to be in Michigan, but for some
time she had had no trace of him, and his
address is unknown to her friends Her
trunk, containing many letters which will
likely lead TO the location of her relatives,
has been taken in charge by the coroner.
Pensioners of the church say that no
one had noticed any undue intimacy be-
tween the young woman and her pastor.
They say that she was frequently thrown
in company with the clergyman in the
course of her missionary labor, but no one
had the least suspicion that they were
other than pastor and missionary in their
relations toward each other.
In sort of autobiography found among
the papers of the dead woman she had
written that she was born in east Prus-
STA Nov. Is, 1871. In the sketch she referred
to her conversion and entrance into the
training school at Chicago and of her life
at brothers home in Oak Park. a suburb
of Chicago. The paper was dated year
ago. She was petite and shapely woman
of the blonde type and was plainly but
tastefuuy dressed in a striped waist and
walking skirt, wearing a gray felt hat.
OF the ministry and home life of Mr.
Rabe the members of his congregation bear
testimony of the greatest praise He was
a finely educated man and had graduated
| from Harvard College with distinction
Coroner Bradley made a careful and sys-
tematic investigation of the circumsta nces
surrounding the tragedy and believes that
| the gas stove was turned on accidentally
| The investigation showed that Ii was posi-
| bic to turn off the light jet, at the same
| time touching the valve in the pipe leading
| to the stove, opening IL partly, the two
valves being but a few inches apart This
| the coroner believes was done