Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1903-05-28
HAPPENINGS IN
HAWKEYEDOM
What Has Been Going on
During the Past
Week.
IS HELD TO THE GRAND JURY
Mrs. Kruger of Lresco Must Explain
Certain Happenings in Connection with
the Recent Murder o. Her Husband
Killed with a Pickax.

Cresco, May 23.-The preliminary
who is held upon the charge of murder
ing her husband, Gustav Kruger, at
Florenceville. this county, last month,
has been held The evidence offered
by the state showed that Mr.. Kruger
was last seen Thursday, April 10, re-
turning from fishing Several days
later, upon being asked where Mr..
Kruger was, she said that when she
returned from milking Friday morning
she found that he had taken his fishing.
tackle and best clothes and left, but
she did not know where.
Friday evening she borrowed ahorse
from one of the neighbors, saying Mr..
Kruger had been to Cresco, and was
coming home that night, and she
wanted to go and meet him. The horse
was tied in front of her house and was
seen there as late as 8 o'clock that
night. About midnight she called at
farm house on the Harmony road. a
different direction from Florenceville
than Cresco, and asked for help to get
her buggy out of the mud, saying that
she was going to Harmony to meet Mr..
Kruger, had lost the road and got
stuck in the mud She stayed at this
house over night, and left for home
early Saturday morning While she
was here it was noticed that one of
the blankets in the buggy was covered
with blood, and she said that Mr.. Krue-
ger had brought home some fresh
meat a few days before and left 1t
in the buggy, wrapped in this blanket,
while he did his chores, and that the
blanket was stained IN this way. Sun
day Mr.. Krueger's children inquired of
her where their father was, and she
said he had gone TO Cresco Friday.
Monday they came to Cresco and re-
turned Tuesday with the sheriff and
the county attorney. Tuesday the
house was searched and blood stains
found upon the curtains of the kitchen
windows, the walls, floor and upon the
stove and kitchen table; and also in
a small closet of one of the bedrooms
1t was then suggested that the river
be dragged for the body, as it might be
that he had been. drowned She then
| said there was no use in searching be-
low the bridge, as il he had been
drowned he would be found in the fish
ing hole, in the mill pond, above the
bridge.
Tuesday afternoon the body was
found about two miles below the
bridge, near where she left her buggy
Friday night. The body was weighted
with stones and lying in about two feet
of water. The skull had been crushed
and in three places indeDted as though
struck with the sharp end of pick
ak. Krueger's pickax was afterwards
examined and bloOdstains found upon
the handle, but the iron had been re-
Gently scraped and secured. The points
of the ak fits nicely in the holes in the
skull.
Tuesday afternoon Mrs. Kruger re-
ceiVed a letter from a Son-in-law in
Wisconsin, in which he spoke of well
caving in on his place, and then Mrs.
Kruger said her husband had gone,
to visit this Son-in-law to help fix the
well. Since being brought to Cresco
under arrest Mrs. Kruger has talked
with none except her counsel and
made no attempt to explain any of the
circumstances which point to her as
at least having knowledge of the
manner of her husbands death. At
the close of the testimony upon the
part of the state she waived further
examination and was held to the grand
jury, which meets June 8.
The theory OF the state is that she
killed her husband Thursday night
with the pickax, dragged the body into
the closet and left it until Friday night,
when she loaded it into the buggy,
drove to the river, near where the body
was found, threw it into the stream
and lost the road and got stuck in the
mud in coming back. She and Mr..
Kruger had been married about eight
cen months and are not known to have
had any trouble.