East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-03-26

That Ephram Hedberg, the aged
German who dropped from sight at
Umatilla, last August, wandered out
into the sagebrush near Umatilla
Butte and died OF starvation or thirst,
Is the verdict rendered by the coro-
ner's jury at the inquest held over
the remains this morning The the
ory is that the old man became de-
mented, as he had been acting queer
ly, and though only a few rods from
the railroad track and "A few miles
from both Hermiston and Umatilla,
was unable to make his way back to
civilization.
Though the discoverers, John Rice
and j. NJ. Scarborough, frustrated the
attempt of the officers to hold an in
quest yesterday afternoon, by refus-
ing to give up the remains or tell of
the finding. they thought better of
their decision later and notified Dis
trict Attorney Phelps by phone last
night that they would turn over the
few bits of skeleton and clothing
which they had found and tell all they
knew.
Coroner Folsom therefore met with
no trouble when he returned to Her
miston this morning, accompanied by
Attorney C. J. Ferguson. The coro-
ner was armed with subpoenas and
had the men refused to come to time
they would probably have been ar
rested for contempt.
The reason for Withholding the re-
mains was presumably through fear
that the reward money might be lost.
They therefore declared they would
turn the remains over TO the relatives,
only, and then not before the 800 re-
ward had been paid.
When asked to come before the
coroner's jury this morning Rice and
Scarborough dug up the bits of hu-
man skeleton from Rice's haymow,
where they had been concealed.
The coroner's jury was composed
of r. p. Dodd, James Means, r. n.
Rogers, C. f. Baker, II. Mortimer
and J. Jones.
Very little information was brought
out at the inquest in addition to that
given in the East Oregonian yester-
day. Two watches were found in
stead OF one, the second one being OF
silver and the first of gold Three
cents in change were also found in the
pocketbook, together with the drafts
amounting to more than $17OO. All
of these were found in the pockets
of the remnants of his trousers, in
stead OF in his coat pocket. His pipe
stem was found in a vest pocket.
From the story told the grand jury
OF the finding of the remnants OF
Hedberg's body It was evident that
the old man had been forced to shed
his coat. by the heat of the sun. This
he rolled up carefully and deposited
IL in a bunch Of sagebrush, putting
another large piece of brush by 1t as
a marker Later he discarded his
vest, as 1t was found in a different
place and was not torn by the coy
otes. which had torn the rest of his
clothtng to shreds in order to get at
the flesh
The remains were found scattered
over a radius of mile and half. So
far, all that has been found is the
head-d!scovere several weeks ago.
one shoe, containing the bone of
the foot and leg-and the coat, vest,
collar, and portions of trousers, un-
derclothlng, and one sock.
These grewsome relics will all be-
brought TO Pendleton this evening by
Coroner Folsom who will in turn,
dispose of them as directed by the
nephew and daughter of the dead
man, who are expected to arrive here
e..., A.i,Iopd IN tlo emma train