The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1909-01-22
FAMILY
KILLED
HORRIBLE TRAGEDY IN
SEATTLE REVEALED.
W. L. sEELEY SUPPOSED TO HAVE
COMMITTED CRIME wH11E"
INSANE.

seattle, Jan. Nv. l.. Seeley, an
attorney and former national bank ex.
aminer for Illinois under Comptroller
of the Currency Eckles; his wife, Mrs.
Kate M. Seeley, member of the ma
tional society of Daughters of the
American Revolution, and his daughter,
Miss Rose Seeley, a student at the Uni
versity of Washington and a member
of the Delta Gamma sorority, were
found dead in bathroom of their home.
307 Eighteenth avenue north, in the
fashionable Capitol Hill district, at /
o'clock this afternoon. They had been
dead since Thursday.
The women, clad in nightrobes, had
been murdered by being struck in the
head, evidently with hammer. There
was no mark of violence on Seeley.
He is believed to have partially chloro-
formed himself and then drowned in the
bathtub. All three were kneeling at the
side Of the bathtub with their heads
submerged in the water. A steamer
trunk was on the bodies Of Seeley and
his wife.
Believe Seeley Was Murderer.
That Seeley killed his wife and
daughter while insane over financial
worries and then committed suicide is
the theory Of the coroner and the police.
He was clothed in his underwear, shoes
and trousers. His nightgown, which
was bloodstained from the bodies of the
two women, was found beneath clean
pillow in the room occupied by him and
his wife. The pillow on which Mrs.
Seeley had been sleeping was saturated
with blood.
Seeley came here less than two years
ago from st. Joseph, Mo. He had lived
there two years and had moved there
from Ottawa, Ill. He had engaged in
the practice of law wherever he had
been fOr the last 80 years. He was IS
years old, his wife about three years
his junior and his daughter % years
old.
Found by Girls Sweetheart.
TIE bodies were found by Guy M.
Smelzer, affianced husband of Miss See
ley, and E. R. Zibbell, friend of the
family.
Although keeping up the appearance
of prosperity, Seeley had been forced
to borrow money for his last month 3
house rent from W. w. Wiltshire, an
attorney from whom he rented desk
room in the New York block.
Uncle of Judge Gose's Wife.
Seeley is an uncle of the wife of M.
F. Gose of Pomeroy, recently appointed
by the governor to the Washington
supreme bench. He has a brother,
Charles, at Pomeroy, WASH, and an
discredited the theory that his brother
was in financial straits, by saying that
recently he had received $4,000 from the
settlement of his fathers estate. His
brother knows no motive for the crime
and thinks the man must have been
insane. What has become of this money
is not known.
An empty chloroform bottle was on
the stand in the bathroom. Clutched in
the hand of Seeley, which was beneath
the water, was pocket handkerchief,
which, although soaked with water for
a day, still carried faint trace of the
odor of chloroform.
There were three wounds on the head
of Mrs. Seeley. One was above the left
eye and the other two were on the for
ward part Of the head. The blow that
evidently killed Miss Seeley was dealt
her over the left eye. There were no
marks on the man.
Handsome Furniture, Little Food.
The residence was handsomely fur
nished. On the floors of some of the
rooms there are expensive rugs, while
the china closet contains much delicate
and costly chinaware. The whole air
OF the place, as indicated by the furni-
ture and the literary quality of the
books, was one of prosperous gentility