East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-07-23


The murderous pistol snuffed out
another young life this morning when
Elsie Kenison. aged IS, was shot TO
death in her home at Echo by B. r.
stoffel, a jealous and maddened
lover.
The horrible crime was committed
At $3.50 this forenoon in the home OF
2. z. Elder, the girls step father, in
Echo.
Stoffel, who had been going with
Miss Kenison since the Fourth OF
July, went to the Elder home, where
he found the Kenison girl In company
with an s-year-old neighbor girl. and
entering the bedroom where she was
working shot her in the mouth, the
ball from a 3s caliber pistol passing
entirely through her head and out
through the window screen, killing
her instantly.
The murderer then ran out OF the
house threw the pistol with which he
had killed the girl into a rocking
chair in the yard and ran away over
the low hills to the north OF Echo,
armed with an automatic pistol with
which to defend himself
The little girl who was at the Elder
home, but not In the room with Miss
Kenison, hearing the shot, ran into
the house and saw Elsie lying with
her head In q chair. her body on the
floor and blood streaming from her
mouth and nose. She ran to the barn
TO notify Miss Kenison's grandfather,
Mr.. Whitworth, and on entering the
bedroom he found the young life had
been snuffed out almost instantly, the
girl being dead within two or three
minutes after the shot was fired.
Within a few minutes the neighbors
were notified and large crowd gath
cred at the home. and Immediately a
posse of about forty men was organiz-
ed by Marshal Hoggard of Echo, and
the pursuit OF the murderer was be-
gun.
Stoffel was seen to leave the FL
der home on a run and start for the
low hills covered with high sage
brush Just north of town, and before
the posse could get under way he had
perhaps twenty minutes the start, but
al the time the posse left town 1t was
expected they would catch the mur-
derer within a short time, unless he
gained the wheat belt and hid in a
wheat field.
Echo Is Shocked.
The entire little town was shocked
by the crime. Miss Kenison was a
favorlte among all the people. She
was IS years OF age and graduated
from the Echo public school last
spring. Her mother is married to e.
r. Elder, we'll known citizen of
Echo and two brothers, L. G. and
Charles Kenlson, live at Fosters.
B. r, Stoffel, the murderer, has |
been working for Mr.. Elder for some
time, and Is "a years of age, man
of medium height, round face and
somewhat erratic temperament. Since
the Fourth Of July he has been going |
with Miss Kenison, and 1t is the sup
position that she had rejected him.
and maddened because of this he de-
termined on the horrible crime.
Miss Kenison was highly respected
and universally liked by every one,
and It is not believed that she encour-
aged his attentions. AZ there are no
eye witnesses to the crime and no
one heard the conversation preceding
the murder, the entire secret of the
affair is in the keeping Of the mur-
derer.
Murderer Hanged Himself.
While the posse Of Echo citizens
was searching the sage brush hills for
Stoffel another chapter in the grew
some tragedy was being enacted In
Echo. Stoffel, after leaving the
whItworth house. where he had COM
mltted the murder. circled about the
foothills and returned to the Whit
worth barn and hanged himself to a