Smyrna times., 1907-01-16
NOMAN'S BODY
IN DEEP LAKE
Grewsome Murder Story Told by
Hotel Man at Pottsville, Pa.
bEATEN TO DEATH BY TWO MEN

Pottsville, Pa, Jan. IA. - Without
the faintest clew to the identity of
either the fair victim or her two mas
culine murderers, the people of this
community have become intensely in
terested in the evidences of a myster-
ious woman's tragic fate at Tumbling
Run Lake, mile from Pottsville. That
some blonde of the gentler sex was
lured or forcibly taken to this now
deserted summer resort, ruthlessly
beaten down despite her piteous pleas
for mercy, and then thrown, more than
half dead, into the deep waters of the
lake, there appears to be no doubt.
Henry Reichert, proprietor of the
Mountain View Hotel, is the only per-
son who has been able as yet to def
nitely follow the trail of blood
splotches under the pines to the spot
beside the lake, where were found the
tufts of blonde hair, the indentation
of a woman's head in the mud and
tracks of a woman's shoes beside those
of men at the end of the wagon tracks
leading thither. Reichert, who keeps
track not only of his own resort build
ings during the winter, but the cot.
tages of his absent summer neighbors
as we'll, says he believes the unknown
and helpless woman was beaten by two
or more men about mile from the
lake. She was carried in a buggy to
the waters edge, and there she revived
sufficiently to make resistance. The
fhay, cd ha,.
her head until most of her hair was
scattered on the shore.
Reichert says that in the impene-
trable darkness of the night he dimly
made cut that two or more men were
beating a defenseless woman near one
of the deserted cottages, and that in
the distance, as near as he dared ap-
proach, he followed them on the round
about trail to the waters edge.
Crouching behind one of the low
frame cottages, he could make out the
forms of the men and the woman in
the dark. The woman prayed that her
life be spared, and when she was
knocked down she fought desperately.
In few minutes her cries were stifed,
and the men threw her into the buggy,
which was standing in the road oppo-
site the cottage.
Keeping at safe distance, Reichert-
trailed the buggy to the lake. The
way lay over loose ground, and the
line of drops of blood was broken with
big splotches at every spot where the
wheels Jared over rocks.
Reichert is in doubt how the men
put the body in the lake. There was
scant cover 75 feet back from the wa
ter, and the watchman did not ap-
proach close enough to discern all the
movements of the murderers in the
: darkness. He says he heard the
thSmp of the woman's body on the
shore as the men dragged her from the
buggy.
Then there came another cry for
mercy, followed by oaths and shut
fling of feet as the men fell on the wo-
man and crushed out the last sparks
of life. Reichert said that the last
struggle lasted about two minutes.
Snow obliterated the murderous
bloOdstains and tracks at Tumblin Run
lake, where the body of the murdered
woman now rests. Two or more mys-
terious men, who drove up to the lake
and were heard to throw some heavy
object into it on Thursday night. are
unknown, but Chief of Police Davies
has samples of the blood and the hair
found on the waters edge.
The waters of Tumbling Run are 60
feet deep, the dams having been con-
structed to flood the old Schuylkill ca
nal, and no effort was made by drag
ging its bottom to compel it to give
up the secret of the dark murder it
conceals.
The only investigation of the affair
is the one whicN Chief of Police Da-
. vies says he fur cd. Davies picked
up as clews several clots of fresh blood
adhering to pine needles, the clots be-
ing of the size of mans hand, to-
gether with some woman's blonde hair
of fluffy character
The trail of blood was much more
pronounced from the point where the
carriage stopped to where it came tc
an end than anywhere else along its
course. The point at which the body
is believed to have been thrown into
the dam is located between the boat
houses of Justice of the Peace ]. w
Conrad and Attorney ]. F. Whalen, or
the south side of the dam.
PENNsY NEEDS s2oo,ooo,ooo