The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-07-14
Two Under Surveillance of Pc.
lice-Believe She Was Stran.
gled and Attacked.
YOUTH AND MAN SAW
HER NEAR DEATH POND
Former Playmate Tells Conflict
ing Stories-One Suspect
Not Yet Found.
Especial to the Evening Star.

TROY, N Y, July 1.-two persons
are under surveillance in connection
with the brutal murder of Miss Hazel
l. Drew and arrests are expected today.
Through accident. the authorities dis
covered that last Tuesday evening, five
days before the young woman's body
was found in Tears Pond, near Sand
Lake, ten miles from here, she had
been met in the road near the pond by
Frank Smith. seventeen years old, and
Rudolph Gundrum, the latter char
coal burner thirty-five years old. Smith
lives with his father, a farmer, near
Sand Lake and was a playmate of the
girl before her parents moved to Troy.
Miss Drew spent last summer at the
farm of her uncle, William Taylor, near
Teaps Pond, and in that way Gundrun1
met her and her acquaintanceship with
Smith was renewed.
District Attorney O'Brien was driv-
ing through the Eastern section of
Rensselaer, county, when he heard that
the girl had been met in the road from
Averill Park to Tears Pond by Smith
and Gundrum, The Smith boy was
| found by the prosecutor and in two
| hours interview he contradicted himself
so many times that the official decided
| to place detectives to watch the youth.
| Gundrum was not found Immediately,
| but his house was guarded and officers
were assigned to find and interview
him.
| Girl Met on Road.
| The boy told the District Attorney
that he met Gundrum early Tuesday
evening. Gundrum being on the road to
Averill Park in a buggy. Gundrum in
vited Smith to ride with him to the VIII
lage, and the boy got in. At point
| short distance from Averill Park they
saw a young woman walking along the
road ahead, and upon coming close to
her recognized her as Miss Drew. Ac-
cording to the boys story, they
stopped and had a talk with her, and
she told them she had alighted from a
trolley car at the Averill Park station
only a few minutes before and was
walking to the home of her uncle, Will
lam Taylor, whose farm is near the
| little pond in which the body was later
found.
Young Smith said that they then pro-
ceeded on their way to Averill Park,
the girl walking on in the direction
of her uncle's farm house, humming a
tune. That. the boy said, was the last
they saw of her.
Under cross-examination, however,
young Smith became extremely nervous
and told of several facts which conflict
ed with his original story. He admitted
that he and Gundrum did not go direct
ly to Averill Park after leaving the
girl, but went to Harris's Hotel, where
they had a drink and talked over the
incident.
|. Another story was to the effect that
after meeting the girl Smith alighted
from the rig and accompanied her a
part of the way toward her uncle's
home.
The officers called on Taylor, the
uncle, and he assured them that the
girl never reached his house. He said
he had received no word from her that
she was coming to visit him, and he
supposed that she was in Troy.
Autopsy shows Strangulation.
Further light was thrown upon the
tragedy through statement made last
night by DIR. Boyce, of Averill Park,
who assisted in the autopsy. DR.. Boyce
said that in his opinion the girl had
not only been struck upon the head with
blunt instrument or club, but had
After the body was brought to Lar
kins's undertaking rooms for the au
topsy," said DR.. Boyce, II discovered
tied tightly about the neck a string
which had apparently been taken from
the girls corsets. The tongue and eyes
bulged from the head, and In my opin-
ion this condition was caused by
strangulation, although the other ply
sicians at the autopsy were of the opin-
ion that 1t may have been caused by
the action of the sun and water. At
any rate the presence of the string tied
tightly about her neck Is further evil
dence that Miss Drew was the victim
of foul murder; that her murderer or
murderers were not satisfied that she
was dead after receiving the blow upon
the head, and that they resorted to
strangulation to make doubly sure"
The theory of the authorities is that
some person or persons met the girl on
the Averill Park and Teal Pond road,
and after dragging her into the dreary
place of timber land near the pond as
uoI11fad har