Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1903-07-30
YouNowoMAN MURDERED
Police Unable to Learn Even the Name
of the Victim.


the attempted concealment of the crime,
there was laid bare by two little children
IN Mt. Vernon yesterday the murder of a
beautiful young woman.
In her first youth was the victim. Her
face, pretty, smooth of outline. delicate
OF feature, her figure, her well-kept hands.
her small feet clad in shoes of expensive
make, her modest yet fashionable gown.
stamp the woman so brutally slain as hav-
ing been of refinement, II not, indeed, OF
prominent social station.
No crime for many years has been more
horrible, and none has touched greater
depth than the mystery which now con-
fronts the police and coroner of the sub
urban city
The assassin of the beautiful young
woman choked her to death with a shoe
string. lie merely crossed the string
upon her throat in an open knot, and with
am end in each hand strained so furiously
that the thin cord cut deeply into the
flesh. In "a little while she had been
strangled to death.
Lonely Scene of Crine.
He had her where she was helpless to
bring aid by amy agonized cry for succor
that the girl might have raised before the
thin, cruel string cut off her breath and
her life
They were In the eastern section of Mt.
Vernon, and on the outskirts of 1t, where
the residences ended and the roads be-
come but mud tracks through loamy
meadows on to the rising ground with the
Boston Post road and Seton's woods be-
You'd.
How he may have induced her to 20 with
him to this dark, weird spot, seemingly de-
signed for the scene of crime-how he
made her trust him to this extent is among
the things unknown. But, for three hun
dred feet in all directions, there is no
dwelling. Faint would have como any
cry for help that the girl may have had u
chance to utter, If, indeed, such chance
she had
His victim having fallen limp in his
murderous hand the assassin took what
he considered almost certain means of
concealment
Along the meadow ground stretch partly
exposed huge pipes built of Il compost
ton OF masonry. These are "A block apart.
70 the big pipe that runs over Sixth
street and on to Its outlet In East Chester
Creek, the man went and With huge stones
broke open n section of the pipe wall. Into
the Jagged opening he had thus made he
ruthlessiy thrust the girl he had murdered.
He left her there In the foul place, her
body bent and distorted by the mad,
brutal force which he had used in fore
ing 1t through tho aperture.
And this is the mystery that the authors
ties are facing:
The murderer left no trace. Not even
footprints of the man could be found on
tho sand mound on which the sewer pipe
rests.
The unusual weapon, but commonplace
article. used In the commission of the
crime makes hope of tracing tho murderer
from that source hopeless.
The identity of the girl remains I'M
known.
There appears ON none of the articles OF
her apparel-shoes, hat, gown or under
clothing-the name of any maker.
AS far as liz now known, all unseen the
slayer and his victim reached the deserted
spot.
AS far as is now known. none saw the
man leave.
The murderer had thirty-six hours 10 get
away before the authorities knew what
he had done. 1t lis estimated by the cor
oner that the body had been lying that
long before 1t was discovered.
The man had ample chance to rid him
self of the clothing bearing marks of tho
crime
Found by Little Girls.
Down Sixth street, in Mt Vernon, on
their way toward an apple orchard near
Seton woods, Isabel Knight, of No. AZ
Union avenue, and Ethel Mullen, of No.
2l2 South Fulton avenue, Mt. Vernon.
We're walking. In playful moods, the lit
tie girls jumped upon the big drain and
begun to make their way, walking on
its curving surface.
Suddenly little Miss Knight halted. She
stood before a jagged hole In the pipe
thnt had come in her path. by this strange
chance of two innocent childrens frollc
was the murder discovered.
There is Il bundle of clothing In there. :"
said the girl to her companion.
"Curioua at sight of the flounce of the
silk dress looking new and bright, for lit
tie water flows through the pipe. and for
several days past 1t has been quite dry,
the girl put in her hand to pull 1t out
She recoiled screaming.
There's a dead woman in there said
the girl, all tremble. when I lifted
the dress 1 uncovered foot
In fear they went back to the aperture
and Ethel too, saw plainly the foot of
the murdered woman.
Then the girls fled, screaming. They
ran for nearly quarter of a mile. In Co
lumbus avenue they met Alderman Ul-
tricht. of Mt Vernon, who lives I'm that
neighborhood. Breathlessly they told him
of the discovery.
The alderman went to the telephone I'm
his house and In a little while was telling
Chief of Police Foley of the existence of a
crime that bids fair to transcend any muir
der mystery for years.
The chief ordered the patrol wagon and,
with Detectives Lynch, Atwell and Wa
ters. drove out Sixth street and finally
found the Jagged. broken opening in the
sewer pipe. Before starting. the chief had
notified Coroner Weisendanger who ar
rived at the place few minutes after the
police, accompanied by his official physi-
clan, DIR. Van Patten.
Excepting through the meadow land the
pipe Is held by a viaduct of masonry TWEEN
ty feet high and fifteen feet wide. 1t was
all originally covered, but for long while
stretch of the pipe has been uncovered
by the brick wall.
The gap broken into the pipe by the
murderer is a big one. 1t is almost eight
feet long and is about forty-seven inches
wide. The pipe itself is five feet in di-
ameter.
But the murderer had showed the body
into the pipe so far that only the 1ounce
of the dress showed
No One Knew the Victim.
After more than a thousand persons had
viewed the forlorn, pitiable body yester-
day and none had recognized it, there
came uppermost the theory that the girl
was n stranger in Mt. Vernon
And this leads some of the police to the
belief that the murder might not have
been committed in tho lonely spot--that
somewhere else the girl was done to death
and taken there in carriage or a wagon
and that the murderer had previously SO
lected the place and brought with him A
sledgehammer or a crowbar, or some such