The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-07-22
MYSTERIOUS DEATH.
POLICE OFFICERS At TROY. n.
Y, ARE BAFFLED.
Efforts to Find Slayer Of Nineteen.
Sear-Old Girl. Whose Body Was
Found Sunday, Cnrewarded.

\ dispatch from Troy, y. I. say
cGt Of d maze of the theories which
confront the authorities who ARE
trying to lift the cloud Of mys,er,
surrounding the death Of 1e year
cd Haze /. Drew. whose body wa!
found in an old mill pond near Ave
l"tt Park last Sunday, nothing taugi
he developed so far that points te
the murderer the motive for the
c.ime. No arrests have been made
although the police have closely
t:ieStioned several persons whom il
was thought might throw some light
Ga the case.
That the girl was assaulted before
Siie was murdered and thrown into
tie pond, is the generally accepted
theory, but the body was in such a
state of decomposition when found
Is TO make it practically impossible
for the physicians to determine that
fact.
Theories multiply as to the motive
for the murder. The girl was not
known to have an enemy or sweet
heart, and the baffied authorities were
eren willing to take up the possihili-
ty of suicide. The physicians state
rnent. however, TO the effect that
there was no water in the lung was
ven as proof that the girl was dead
before her body was thrown into the
pond.
At the church yard at PoestenkllI,
where Hazel's life began, her body
was laid to rest. A bunch of roses
adorned the casket, while the Rev.
w. H. E. Richards, Of the Methodist
Church, offered prayer. Only few
friends and relatives We're present.
What the girl did from the time
sne left her aunt On Monday. July g.,
until the body was found, remains
untold. Rhody Gunderman and
) .ank Smits tell OF having seen
Hazel on Tuesday night on the road
leading from Averill Park to Taber-
-on. They met her, they say, at a
ioi2t in the road calied The Hol-
low" a little father along another
rad branches of to the left and leads
TO the home of VIM. Taylor, an IN
Gle of the girl. She may have been
on her way to visit some friends in
Taberton or her destination may
have been her uncle's home. Accord
ing to Gun@errlan's story the girl
was carrying, her hat in her hand.
One Of the numerous theories that
developed suggested that a young
woman living at Taberton closely re-
:ombles the murdered girl and that
Gundernan and Smith might have
len mistaken in thinking that she
vas Hazel. The girl, however, when
questioned, said she was not on the
ad on Tuesday night although
she had been that way on foot on
crher nights.
8. The authorities are endearoring
u find the suit case and handbag
which the girl carried when she left
Troy. The fact that she did not
have them when she met Gundermau
and Smith is taken to indicate that
she may have left them where she
has spent the preceding night.
The possibility that the bag and
suit case may have been thrown
into the mill pond led the authorities
10 open the gate of the dam for the
purpose of draining. After about
two feet of water had been let out
heavy thunder storm came up and
further operations were postponed
until THURSDAY. The girls hat,
gloves and eyeglasses We're found on
the bank. and there was no indica-
ton of a struggle, although sutti-
cient time had elapsed since the girl
met her death to have permitted the
trampled grass to revive.
The theory that the girl died from
strangulation as the result Of a corset
string tied about her neck, and
which is said to have been cut al
the time Of the autopsy, is not gwen
much credcnce by the authorities.
The string apparently was one
that the girl were about her necS
end it brake when the body became
swollen by being in the water sc
long.
The authorities do not place mucf
credence in the story that the CIR
was taken tc the lonely pond by