The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-07-09
Search of River For Body of
David r. Thomas.
Escaped From Topeka State
Hospital Three Weeks Ago.
NOT A TRACE FOUND.
Relatives and Friends Believe
That He Was Drowned.
Once Swan the KaW in Dead of
Winter.

A little squadron of motor boats
commanded by former Detective
Geyer of Emporia will venture out
into the Kaw early tomorrow morning
at a point opposite the state hospital
for the insane to begin a two days
search for the body of David r.
Thomas, an escaped inmate of the in
stitution.
working down stream the boats will
go slowly and carefully as possible
on their sorrowfuI mission searching
diligently the clumps of brush and the
piles of debris washed up along the
banks, or dragging the bottom with
graphing hooks. Unless the body is
found sooner the boats will spend to-
morrow and Sunday in a thorough
search from Topeka to the dam "a
Lawrence which it is thought would
hold the body should it have been
washed that far.
Thomas escaped from the asylum
nearly three weeks ago and though
he has been hunted throughout Lyon
county and Emporia and the ponce at
Attica, Indiana have looked for him
no trace has been found and his
brother at Emporia has hired Detec-
tive Geyer to institute a diligent
search, sparing no money in an at
tempt to find the missing man dead or
alive. and in addition a reward of $25
has been offered to anyone who can
give any information leading to his
whereabouts At Attica, Indiana, live
the mans wife and two children. 1t
has been his constant cry at the nos
pital to go to them. 81 want to go to
nv wife and babies,'' he repeated con-
tinually with tremulous voice.
Thomas is the same man who,
breaking from the institution March
IS, swan the icy river in an attempt
to get the train for Attica. He es-
capped by wrenching an iron bar from
the window casing and dropping to the
ground from his second story WINDOW
by the aid of a rope made from his
bed sheets. Carrying the iron bar
with him he held the attendant at bay
for several hours in a clump of bushes
on the river bank, threatening to kill
the man if he came closer. The two
had then stood glaring at each other
for nearly an hour when Thomas ran
out onto a sandbar. threw off his
jumper and with only an underShirt
on swan across.
A group of negroes dragged him al
most frozen out of the river at the
coal chutes and took him in by the
engine to warm him. There he was
placed in the police patrol wrapped in
a horse blanket and hauled to the
station. Asked what he was trying to
do. the man seemed rational enough
and replied:
II wanted to go to my wife an babies.
I have not seen them for a long time.
They live at Attica, Indiana, and I
know the want to see me. I got a let
ter from my wife a year ago the goth
said she wanted to see me. Today is
her birthday and had to get there by
tonight if I could" Thomas represent
ed the Metropolitan Life Insurance
company in Topeka about 1895 and as
he rode along remarked about the i'm
provements in the city and pointed out
the old buildings he knew.
Twice before he had tried to get
I, 81 q l, Al t.,
boarding a Union Pacific train after
getting across the river. He arrived
safely in Kansas City but when he
transferred to take the Wabash to st.
Louis he boarded another Union Pa
cifc train and returned to North To-
peka where an attendant happened to
be looking for him. Another time he
stood close behind the door of his cell
so that when the attendant not seeing
him readily stepped into the room, he
grabbed him from behind, showed him
across the room and leaping outside
locked the door with the key left in the
outside Thomas fled into the country
and disappeared for several days, being
captured only when he turned up at a
farm house begging food.
The wife and babies of Thomas never
came west with him and it is believed
that family troubles deranged his
mind. 1t is nearly ten years since he
was sent up from Lyon county and al
ways his wall from that arrangement
has been either, Il want to go back to
my wife and babies" or Il want to
help men, women, and children
In business Thomas was a well
known and well liked man and many
business men of Emporia and Topeka
doubtless remember him.
A colored woman shoplifter captured
operating in the John Rhodes curiosity
shop at Tenth and Kansas avenues this
morning is the first case of that Pc
cular brand of larceny to come before
the police court in months.
Mary Marshall or Mary Reed as she
prefers to be called was caught sight
of BY Rhodes Just as she was in act of
s'staching'' an eight yard piece of blue
bingham under her skirt A small col
ored boy was in the store at the same
time carrying a gunny sack under his