Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-03-18
Exoneration of Mrs. Dye Adds
to the Mystery of the Mel
son Poisoning
AS TO THE SUICIDE THEORY
South Dakota Officials Are Beginning
to See That There May Be Some
Reason for Believing the Girl Poi
soned Herself-The Postage on Poi
son Package Missing.
Special to Times-Republican

Boone, March 1S.--Tle visit of the
South Dakota officials TO this city has
not resulted in clearing up the mystery
of the poison candy sent to Miss Nelson
at Pierre. While it has been pretty
clearly shown THAI Mrs Dye is not the
guilty party, as stated in these dis
patches yesterday. but little light has
been shed on the strange affair The
theory suggested some time ago that
Miss Nelson may have sent the candy
to herself and took that method of
credence here and it is believed the
Dakota authorities are now more will
ing to admit that such a theory is
plausible. The grounds for believing
that she may have committed suicide
are strengthened rather than les
sened by the fact THAT the
postmortem showed Miss Nelson
was a virtuous woman. it is
believed that when she became con-
WINGED that she had been misled and
completely fooled by Dyes claim that
he was divorced from his wife she be-
came ashamed to face the world and
altho perfectly blaneless felt she had
committed a very great error. Natur-
ally her thoughts turned to suicide and
without calculating the terrible conse-
quences Thought to hide her suicide by
causing suspicion that she had been
murdered.
matter which has puzzled Boone
people has been explained by the
South Dakota officials, and that is why
Miss Nelson ate the candy before she
opened the letter from her aurt, con-
tanning warning against the pusposes
of Mrs. Dye. The letter was addressed
to Miss Nelson's mother and she there
fore had no right to open it.
Mrs. Dye frankly admits the sending
OF letters to Miss Nelson to ask her not
to continue the correspondence with
her husband, and In doing so she would
have no occasion to disguise her hand
She only admits writing two letters, one
TWO years ago, and one on January 4,
and neither of these could possibly be
the one used on the bon bon box.
That the envelope was used for the
purpose of exhibiting the postmark
Boone and throwing suspicion on some
Boone party, is conelusively proved by
examining. the wrapper. BY raising
the cancelled stamp on the letter it
was discovered that the cancellation
lines ran underneath it, This
shows conclusively that the second
stamp used was pasted over the letter
address. And ngslt here Is where the
deepest mystery comes in. The cancel
lation OF the second stamp is in lines
which the postal authorities say could
only have been by machine. Other
cancellation stamps would have been
circular or of the '.dauber" style, and
the question is. how did the Straight
lines get on the second stamp. There
is only one answer in the postal de-
partment, and that is that the second
stamp must have gone thru a machine,
and in that event 1t could not have
been a package, but a letter. The in
evltable conclusion is that the second
stamp must have been used after can
collation. on letter, and the question
then arises. where was the postage for
the delivery of the package of poisoned
candy? The only answer to this ques-
ton is that the real postage was on
another part OF the package, ard that
this part was destroyed filter the
package was delivered. Who destroy
ed It.? There Is but one answer to this
question, and that is that the leceiv-
er, Miss Nelson, destroyed dt. The
theory of suicide, not intended, but re-
sultant, is thus strengthened. There
seems to be no proof that the pack
age of poisoned candy was mailed in
Iowa. In fact, the postal authorities
are OF the opinion that it could not
have been mailed in this state, or
more correctly stated, there is no
proof whatever that the package was
mailed in this state. There is proof
II no more of the package wrapper
can be produced than is now here
that the package was not mailed in
this state The balance u the wrap
per must be produced to prove where
1t was mailed.