Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-28
DREW INQUEST TAME
Witnesses Are Asked No En-.
barrassing Questions.
MYSTERY DEEP AS EVER
Dead Girls Love for Brother Sug.
gests New Inquiry.
HE EXPECTED SISTERS VISIT
Assertions Made by Frank Smith
Contradicted-Employes Fail to.
Prove Alibi for Taylor.
HE EXPECTED SISTERS VISIT

| TROY. n. Y, July 2s.-The deep mys-
terry of the murder Of Hazel Drew whose
body was found in Tears pond July
II. was brought no nearer it's solution
! by any evidence adduced yesterday at
the start of the coroner's inquest at Aver
| i'll Park.
For hours District Attorney O'Brien
piled witnesses with questions in an effort
to throw a CLEAN Of light upon the trag-
edy When the days work was over he
was as much in the dark as when he
began his investigation sixteen days ago.
| While the inquest developed no clue.
a new line of investigation was opened
up by the detectives that they hope may
eventually lead to ferreting out the girls
| slayer This clue has to do with the
| girls youngest brother. Willie Drew, q
been discovered she was particularly
fond. Between Hazel and her older
brother and sisters and even her parents
there existed manifest GOODNESS, but for
! her brother Will she held an undying
| love.
This boy. blue eyed and manly. had
been stopping for three weeks. up to
the Monday after the discovery OF the
house of Mrs. Libbie sowalsky, on Bears
Head road. 1t is now believed that
Hazel was on her way to the Sowalsky
farm to see her brother the night she
| met her death.
She never reached the farm. and the
superstition is that on the way along
the rocky, tortuous road she was In
terceped and lured to Teafs pond. where,
| after an effort was made to attack ner'
she was killed and her lifeless form
thrown into the water. Bears Head
road strikes of from Taborton Noun
tain road about half mile from Tears
pond. Hazel was seen walking along
Taborton road that night. She had left
the Cary home in Troy the day before,
after packing her belongings. and that
| 1t was her intention to leave the city Is
evidenced by her checking her suit case
at the union station In Troy.
Boy Expected His Sister.
Will Drew had expected his sister to see
| him. He told Mrs. Sowalsky so. It is
| considered likely that before starting on
her trip, wherever she proposed going.
Hazel would have made it a point to say
goodbye to him. Mrs. Sowalsky said yes
| terday that Willie talked of his sister for
week before the night of July Z, and
seemed to have an idea that she was
coming to see him soon.
when we heard that a girl had been
found in the pond" said Mrs. Sowalsky.
land that she wore good clothes. Willie
| said his sister Hazel wore good clothes.
| too. Then he said:
"If thought it was my sister | would
go and Jump in the pond and die with
her He was just wrapped up in his
sister.
ION the day after Hazel was identi-
| fed Willie went in to Troy with my son
| Tom. One OF Willie's friends came run
ming up and told him about Hazel. The
lad broke into tears and cried as though
his heart would break He went to his
mothers home and has not been here
since"
The district attorneys detectives will
thoroughly traverse Bears Head road in
an attempt to find a clue to any person
who might have intercepted Hazel on her
trip to the farmhouse
Mrs. Sowalsky. who is widow Of sixty.
incidentally told the detective that Bill
Taylor, the dead girls uncle. had made a
proposal Of marriage to her year ago,
but that she fatty refused to become a
bride. He called at her home just once,
she said. popped the question in a hurry
and, on being rebuffed, rendered his apol-
ogies and left.
At the Inquest.
The inquest drew a curious throng of
mountain folk and summer boarders to
Wargers Hotel dancing pavilion at
Averill Park. Twenty-one witnesses were
examined by Coroner Strope. There are
still the various members of the Drew
pose the inquest was adjourned at Il
o'clock until Thursday. when it will be
taken up at the county courthouse here.
Throughout the inquest "Bill' Taylor
sat near the district attorney. eagerly
taking in every word. Not once did he
display emotion. When the clothes worn
by the slain girl were brought to view.
Taylor leaned forward in his chair and
scrutinized them closely. but there was no
tremor about his huge frame. no evidence
that he was one whit affected.
In the examination Of the witnesses
conservative attitude. He seemed re-
luctant to put embarrassing questions.
and 1t was the general impression that
he did not get as much out Of the prin-
cipal witnesses as they might have told.
His questions did not strike deep into
the mystery. but specifically covered the
already established points in the strange
tragedy.
| the same persistence that he has mani
tested all along to cast suspicion on Bill
Taylor. He reiterated his former asser-
| tions that Hazel Drew visited Taylor's
home in April, and once more declared
| that he remarked to Frank Richmond at
| Averill Park station the night of July
that Bill appeared to have company at
| his home.
Smith said he asked Mrs Sowalsky
three days after Hazels disappearance
| If the girl had visited her house.
Contradicts Smith
| This was denied later by Mrs. Sowalsky,
who said she had not seen Smith since he
worked six months ago on the road near
! her farm.
Smith appeared to have kept close track
Of Hazers movements up to the night of
| her death, but he firmly insisted that he
had no part in the murder. Pressed as
| to his own movements the night of the
murder after leaving Grapes Hotel, where
he had been drinking. Smith declared he
went right home, but he had no idea
what time 1t was when he reached there.
| It was anywhere from 1890 to midnight
! Taylor repeated his story of retiring
1 early Tuesday night. saying that he did
not leave the house all evening He de-
pended on Frank Richmond, his helper
| on the farm, and Richmonds wife to es-
tablish the fact that he was in bed when
| they returned from a trip to Averill Park