The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-01-20

accident" or murder" with any de-
gree of positiveness.
Story Of the Daughter
Just what occurred in the little two
story house at 815 North Bradford
street between ten and eleven O'Clock
Monday night. is known only by the
tatements Of Sophy Bartesuek; her
s. ter Fanny, eighteen years old;
r "CIox ol, the son of the dead wom-
an, itephen Konstadt, a boarder
In the house, who has been in bed for
about week suffering from an ul-
cerated leg.
Mrs. Bartusek says that everyone in
the house had retired before ten
O'clock. Then. she told the police, her
brother John raped on the front door
and her mother called to her that she
would let him in. She says she heard
her mother get up-the woman always
| slept in her clothes. She'heard her 20
downstairs, he says; then heard a
slight noise like someone falling over
chair.
Again the rapping sounded on the
front door. She went downstairs and
opened it. Her brother John, slightly
under the influence of liquor, entered.
She did not see her mother and went
into the dining-room and kitchen look
ing for her. Then she says she noticed
that the cellar door was open. She
lighted match and looked down and
John Coufal went down the steps and
the called:
Mother is dead!"
Had Body in His Aarms
At this time Mrs. Bartusek's daugh-
ter Fannie heard the noise and went
downstairs. She looked down the cell
las steps. John was down there, but
it was dark. The girl lighted q
match. 1t went out. She lighted
another and then a third, e.. she slow
ly descended the steps. She screamed
and her cry was heard on the srteet
outside.
John Coufal was sitting at the foot
Of the steps holding the body Of his
mother in his arms and exclaiming:
"My mother is dead! She has been
killed! Some one has killed her!
She is dead!"
Screaming. the girl fled from the
house to the street, leaving John Cou-
fal in the dark cellar holding the
body in his arms.
Fannie Bartusek ran toward Ash
land avenue, where she met Edward
McCurdy, who lives on Federal street,
near Hopkins avenue. She rushed up
to him and screamed in his face:
Murder! murder! Some one has
killed my grandmother"
McCurdy ran back to the house with
her. There they found that John
Coufal and Mrs. Bartusek had hauled
the body up the cellar steps and laid
it on the lounge.
McCurdy Hid the Axe
McCurdy, believing that murder had
been committed, descended the cellar
steps, striking matches as he went,
and In the faint light saw the blood
stained axe lying at the foot of the
steps. If the old woman had been
murdered there was the weapon, and
the person or persons who had mur-
dered her would probably try to either
conceal it or clean it.
So McCurdy put the axe back of q
door and ran forth to notify the DO
lice. He found Patrolman Patterson
and Sergeant Kirby and returned to
the house with the two officers.
Mrs. Bartusek was upstairs in bed,
crying Historically. John Coufal, sod
den with the alcohol that added to
his usual density of thought and ex-
preston, kept muttering "My mother
Is killed, my sister killed her, some
one killed her"
When Round Sergeant Arbin arriv-
ed word was sent to Coroner Carruth-
ers. and after that official had exam
ined the body he gave orders for Mrs.
Bartuseks arrest
The story told by the woman who
Is charged with numbering her mother
Is plausible, even believeable, the po-
lice say, but again their minds dwell
upon the bloodstains. 1t was entirely
possible, Captain Grittings and De-
tectives Dougherty and Hogan think,
for Mrs. Coufal to have opened the
cellar door by mistake, thinking It
was the door leading from the dining
room to the parlor. 1t is also entirely
likely that she may have fallen down
the steps and may have fallen upon
the axe, for the implement was gener-
ally kept at the foot of the steps to
chop kindling wood.
But if Mrs. Coufal's head struck
upon the axe the implement must have
been lying blade upward, and it seems
hardly likely that whoever used 1t
last would have left 1t in that posi-
zion.
The cut on the aged woman's head
Is clean wound, with no ragged
edges. 1t extends downward from
the forehead to the bridge of the nose,
and across the wound "T" shaped.
Fingers pressed into the wound touch
the skull and nasal bone.
The cut on the right leg also looks
as if it had been made by a sharp in
strument, and yet is is possible that
If the aged woman fell down the
steps she. of course, pitched face
forward. her knees naturally bent
forward, stretching the skin tight. and
when her limbs struck the steps the
sharp wooden edges could have made
the cash.