Weekly journal-miner., 1909-10-06
SUICIDE THEORY IN
 MYSTERIOUS CASE

SANTA FEE, N. M., Sept. 3O.--Was
 Gertrude Montgomery, who dled on
 Monday morning at o'clock, the apparent victim of an assault, but di-
 reetly from a pistol wound in the
 neck, a suieidef
 Was she a would-be suicide and
 later a victim of assaultf
 ] Why did she climb to the highest
 peak of the mountain range and there
 leave her hat, her veil and her purse,
 containing money.
 Why did she carry a .32 ealibre re-
 volver into the mountains with herr
 If a suicide, how did she achieve
 the difficult feat of shooting herself
 in the back of the neekf
 If she shot herself how did she live for four days in the cold and exposure of the mountainsS
 These are just a few of the IGes- tions which are puzzling the officers here.
 Captain Fred FOrnoff of the mount ed police, not satisfied with the evi- denee connecting the three eOnviets with the case, took the trail himself. After a long search, he found the girls tracks just outside Santa Fe canyon. He followed them for miles. For hours the officer tracked the girl by her footprints, by overturned stones, by pieces of her garments, through the mountains. And finally he found at the very highest point of the range it is possible to at tain, the girls hat, veil and purse containing a small sum of money. There were no other foOtmarks .ny where near but her own. They were plain. Ten feet beyond where the articles were found a cliff falls away sheer for 200 feet. Had the girl been assaulted there the easy and natural thing would have been to push her body over this cliff into the ravine below. Once there the body would never have been found.
 But the girl came down from this high point, and the officers believe she came down alone.
 It was learned today that when found in the canyon the girl Lad d .32 calibre revolver with her. The people who found her say they for got to mention this or to give tine officers the weapon when they came for the body.
 There are wounds on the girls body that indicate assault. Other evidences are lacking. Dr. Sloan, who the girl and who probed for the bullet, says that the bullet en- tered between the skull and the lin ing of the brain and that the girl was incapable not only of speech, but of intelligent answer to questions even by a shake of the head. H. refused as yet to admit that rhe wound is self-inflicted.
 "Do I believe her suieide?' said Capt. Fornoff today. Frankly, I do not know. There are evidences that indicate suicide. The garments in the high mountains. The ease of hiding a body there points away from assault on the one hand and toward suicide on the other. The presence ,f the revolver is another thing that night indicate suicide, or that it was On the other hand, ( he position of the wound in the neck, the girls struggle to get to lelp, are not indications of suicide"
 Captain Fornoff found in the sri's | -oom money sufficient to pay her | 'oom rent to date. A suit ease was l neatly packed as if for a journey. t )n top of the clothing was slip of ' paper containing her mothers ad- C lress in Shreveport, La. t
 The case, while none the less hor- ' ible, is much more a mystery 'han t when the body was found. |