Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-12-09
HOUSEBOAT IN BURKE CASE
River Vessel Thought to Have Some Con-
Reotion with Mystery.
RELATIVES At WORK ON THE CLUE
Two Men IN Boat pulled In tO
Florence NIGHT before Young
Man was Found
Dead
RELATIVES At WORK ON THE CLUE

houseboat Is likely to figure consnlcu-
ously in the mystery NJ the death ~ Her
bert C. Burke. whose body was found l"'-g
near the ash dump Of the water works at
Florence the morning Of October 10
According to the statement OF Michael
DAILY, night Waterman at the Florence
PUMPKINS station. a houseboat put IN It's
appearance about Z O'Clock the night ot
october at the river front near the sta
ton. coming from the north, and was tied
up at the tool house at the intake. Ac
cording to Days statement. two men were
I'm the boat and they asked DAILY about the
arrival and departure of the street car 20
and from Omaha lie told them, and tho
two men asked him to look after the boat
while they were gone. lie talked wish
them about fifteen minutes. one Of them
was a tall, Administered man. who told
Daily that they were representatives Uf
Sioux City newspaper and made annual
trips down the Missouri river in a house
boat from Sioux City writing up the coun-
try and making Photographic views for the
paper. After this talk the two men left
the boat and went up TO Florence, as Mr..
DAILY supposes This was the last he saw
Of either of them. He went down to the
tool house about 9 o'clock and the boat was
still tied UP there. He locked up the tool
house and waited for while for the men
to return, but they did not, while he was
there, though he kept on the lookout for
them thinking their actions somewhat
strange.
sure No Body Was There.
DAILY goes on further to say he passed
almost directly over the spot where Burkes
body was found the next morning, but he
is sure no body was lying there while be
was on duty. If a dead body had been
lying there. he says, he would have seen it.
In the morning the mysterious houseboat
was gone No one else about the pumping
station had seen the houseboat. 1t had
disappeared as mysteriously as 1t came.
Just what connection this houseboat may
have had with the Burke case is not clear,
except that with all the careful and uure-
hitting investigations made by the county
authorities and by the special agents en-
ployed by the relatives and friends Of
young Burke UP to this time no one has
mentioned the appearance Of the house
boat. It is not thought probable the two
men in the houseboat knew anything about
the Burke affair that night; yet It is re-
/ garded quite as certain they would have
seen the body Of a man lying directly In
their pathway from Florence to the point
| where their boat was tied up.
! Mr.. DAILY now thinks there was an evil
dent intention on the part of the two men
| to keep the boat concealed, though they
were frank enough with him in their con-
versation. In addition TO this Mr.. Daily
| says he locked carefully over the ground
each night between the ash dump and the
| tool house, and had Burkes body been iy-
| ing there at any hour of the night he was
on duty he would have seen it.
This houseboat clue is being followed up
! by the friends of young Burke, who have
not ceased working on the case since his
| mysterious death. They still adhere to the
theory of murder and that the body was
carried and laid where it was found. Some
| additional clues are being worked and a
secret investigation is being carried on in
which considerable new evidence bearing
! ON the matter has been taken during the
present week which shows that Burke did
not give up his life without a struggle, at
a point it is not deemed wise to divulge al
present