The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-04-27
WAS IT MURDER?
Suspicion Of Foul Play in Under
Case.
Body Was Found in the Raw on
Saturday.
WIFE ON THE STAND.
Tells Story of Husband Acting
Strangely.
Intimates He Might Have Died
From Heart Failure.

After holding the inquest today over
the body of Andrew Linder, found in
the river near the asylum Saturday
afternoon, there still existed a suspic-
ion in the mind of County Attorney
Schenck that Linder had met with foul
play, and the hearing was continued
until next Tuesday.
Under was SWede employed at the
Santa Fe shops here for the past seven-
teen years. and lived at 211 Tyler street.
He left wife and son, the latter aged
about IS years and employed at the
Smith Auto Works. Linder left home
last Friday morning to go to work at
the Santa F'e shops, taking his dinner
bucket with MIN. He did not get work
at the shops that day. Indeed, he had
not been working for a week past, hav-
ing been laid off.
His body was found by the Gleason
boys, George and Frank, while wading
In the shadows of the river, just this
side of the asylum grounds. The body
lay on its back in about 15 inches Of
water lodged on a sand shoal about 25
feet from the bank. Linder's face was
above water and his hands were cross
ed on his breast. His dinner bucket
was found on the river bank about 80
feet above the place where the body
was discovered.
According to the testimony Of George
Gleason, the boy who found the body,
and of Officers Ross and Sauls who
took the grewsome find from the river,
it would have been next to impossible
for Linder to have drowned himself in
the river at this place. The water was
too shallow. Had he waded out to the
deeper water his body would not have
washed in on the sand bar in the shall
lows.
DR.. Keith, who held an autopsy on
the remains, testified that the body had
been in the water about six hours,
that there was confusion on the fore
head and also that there was no water
in the lungs. The doctor did not be-
1ieve that Under had met his death by
drowning, neither did he believe that
the bruise on the head had caused
death.
Linder's wife, Hilda. was called to
the stand. She could hardly speak or
understand English, SO an Interpreter
was necessary. She testified under
direct examination that she and her
husband had been married 20 years,
living in this city the past II years.
They had had no domestic trouble. she
said, neither had she noticed anything
strange in her husbands actions or
manner the fateful Friday morning he
left home never to return alfvens She
stated, however, that Linder had not
been able to get work at the shops the
past ten days. and that he worried a
good deal over this matter. She stated
also that he had been sick lately, and
that on Wednesday morning of last
week he danced around the room and
acted very strangely. He had put up
his own dinner in his bucket as usual
last Friday morning. He had no enc
mics, she said, nor did she know any
reason why anyone should kill him
He had no money in his house or on
his person, but owed several small
nrinc of ho n
been drinking some lately, but not on
the Friday morning he left home. She
thought that he had had an attack OF
heart failure and fallen into the river
She said he often had trouble with his
heart. He had been unhappy lately
and troubled over money matters, but
| had given no intimation of taking his
life nor had he acted or talked in g