The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-13
N URDER IN MIDDLEFIELD.
MRS. JOHN SMITH VICTIM OF
 MYSTERIOUS CRIME.
Struck Down wlth an Axe, Her Head
 BeInG Nearly Severed from Her Body Robbery Apparently Not the Object The Victim but TwenIy-fonr Years

U q.
 Middletown, June 12.-A murder which at present is wrapped in the deepest mystery occurred in Middle field. a suburb of Middletown, some time to-day. The victim is Mrs. George Smith. the wife of a Rockfall factory employe. She came to her death by the powerful blow of an axe which nearly severed the head from the body.
 A thorough investigation by the Mid dletown police officers tonight failed to throw the slightest light on the mys- tery which surrounds the case. The crime was discovered shortly after six o'clock tonight, when boarder at the Smith house, known as John, returned from the factory where he is employed. He saw the body on the kithen floor, and after ascertaining that he woman was dead he hurried back to the Rock fall woolen mills and informed George Smith, the husband of the murdered woman.
 The polio were notified of the murder, and the chief, accompanied by Medical Examiner Calef, hurried to the scene, the latter with the intention of making an autopsy. It was found, however, that the Smith house was just short distance over the Middletown line and in the town of Middlefield, and it was, therefore, out of the jurisdiction of the MiddletoWn officers. A careful search of the premises was made,S however, without finding single clue as to the identity of the murderer The body of the woman was lying on the kitchen floor, her head a few inches from 8 stairway which leads to the rooms up- stairs, and her feet near the kitchen stove. On the same floor as the kitchen, but in the rear of the building, is a so- called cellar. The lock on the door leading from the cellar into the kitchen was broken. The windows of this eel lar, which look into the backyard, are either securely fastened or boarded up, so that it is hardly probable that en- trance was secured in that manner. The only other way by which entrance to the cellar can be secured is through the kitchen door. This leads to the belief that the murderer must have been con- cealed in the cellar.
 There is no sign of struggle in the room and not an article is disturbed. The theory of robbery Is disposed of by the fact that several trunks in the house, owned by five hoarders and con- taining sums of money, were not touched There was also sum of money under pillow in the bedroom just off the kitchen, and this was un- touched.
 Judging from the position in which the body was found, the woman was attempting to escape from her assailant by running upstairs, She had almost reached the stairs, when powerful blow was struck from behind, knocking her to the floor. The blow was made with the sharp edge of the axe and 1t crushed in the jaw, severed the spinal column and almost released the head from the shoulders of the woman.
 The axe with which the deed was committed was an ordinary woodman's s axe and it was the property of Smith. The police had taken it away as evil dence. It was covered with blood, as was also the floor of the kitchen, and the walls were spattered.
 The victim was twenty-four years old and she lived with her husband in a house which is about two hundred feet back from the roadway and about an eighth of mile from any other house. Five boarders who lived with the Smith family worked in the woolen mills with Smith. All are Polanders. Three of them were men and two were women, one of the latter being the sister of the murdered woman, whose maiden name was Mary Yeger.
 Two special deputies have been sworn in to watch the place and the occupants of the house. Tomorrow morning Dr. Loveland will hold an autopsy.