Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1909-11-30
Photograph Believed to
Have Established
Identity.
BORE SAME NAME AS
THAT WRITTEN ON LETTER
Woman Detained in East Orange
Mystery Battles Police by
Her Silence.

Peculiar circumstances, limiting
strongly of crime, surround the East
Orange bathroom mystery today.
Equally as remarkable as the death it.
self is the mystery which cloaks the
identity of the young woman whose
nude body was found in the unfur-
nished house. SO North Fourteenth
street.
County detectives are assisting the
East Orange police in trying to solve
the mystery. A woman who calls her
self Miss Virginia Wardlaw, aged o.
wears, and claims to be an aunt of the
dead woman, the police believe knows
all about the strange case. For reasons
best known to herself she refuses to
tell anything except to say that "her
niece probably committed suicide by
drowning; that her name is Mrs. ossie
w. NJ snead3 that her husband died
seven months ago; that she has four
year-old son in st. Christophers Hos
pital, Broolxlyn; q daughter died Tour
months ago, and that the young
womans parents are dead. Adro'tiy,
she evades answering questions tnat
might lead to the establishing or the
Young wornan's identity, and she posi-
lively refuses to give the police any in
formation. The police regard the
woman as most cunning. and openly
charge that she is trying to hide facts.
County Physician Mckenzie today Or
dered the woman detained for the pres
ent at least Belief prevails thap 'he
autopsy. which will probably be heia
this afternoon. may throw some lignt
,1t,on the case. Persistently throughout
the night and during the morning hours
today Miss Wardlaw, as she styles her
self, has been questioned. but with no
result. She has faculty of laughing
of serious questions and asking frivo-
lous ones herself. In fact, the ponce say
she is doing everything to block their
inquiry. Opinion prevails with the de-
fectives working on the case that the
young woman's identity is being kept
secret because of the prominence OF her
people. Carefully, everything that
might have a tendency toward estao-
fishing the young woman's identity was
removed from the house by some one
who must certainly have been deeply
interested in so doing.
Perhaps the strangest of all clrcum-
stances were the domestic environments
of the "aunt and niece" The de-
tafned witness, who sometimes calls
herself Miss AYardlaw and sometimes
Mrs. Wardlaw, rented the two-story
frame cottage from Menzel Mutchler
q Co. 105 Roseville avenue, ten days
aeo. She paid a months rent. $2S. In
advance, and also had the gas turned
on. Two trunks and two cots were
the only articles of house furnishings
that arrived in the seven-room house.
The neighbors saw the two women ar
rive In closed carriage. Both were
dressed in black, and the young woman
was assisted into the house. She was
8 never again seen alive by the neigh
bors, either on the street or at the
window. The elderly woman, on the
contrary, came and went every day.
SO did strange carriages, and once an
automobile pulled up in front of the
house. and the mysterious woman in
black emerged and hurried into the
house. The only light ever seen In the
house vas in the alcove room on the
second floor. The bathroom, In which
the body was found. adjoins this room.
Thanksgiving eve carriage drove
up to the house and a tall slim young
man was seen to enter. Neighbors dis
cerned his shadow in the alcove room
for nearly two hours Nobody saw him
leave the house. The next evening a
physician was seen to enter the house.
= 70 he q, nh
sician because he carried a medicine
case, and as he was leaving the woman,
Miss Wardlaw, called to him.
Doctor, will you call again in the
morniLg?"
Police Chief Bell was first notified
of the physicians visit by STAR re-
porter. Immediately he telephoned
what he considered most important
discovery to County Physician McKen-
zie The county physician got the prose-
cutor's detectives busy at once.
It developed later in the day that the
physician in question was DIR. Charles
e. Teeter, of AIS Orange street. Volun-
tarily DR.. Teeter, after reading the
story of rhe woman's strange death in
tho STAR, visited County Physician
Mckenzie and told him all that he
knew.
Thanksgiving night" said DIR. Teeter.
II was called to the Fourteenth street
house by Miss Wardlaw. as she calls
herself. was told that the patient
was a Mrs. Snea6, and that she was
quite i'll. / found the young woman
lying on the cot upstairs. Beyond a
slight cold failed to find anything the
matter with the young woman. was
amazed at the absence of furniture and
told the Wardlaw woman that thought
it very queer.
She did not offer to explain and, /
pressed her no more and left saying
that the patient was not i'll enough to
need a physician was SO impressed
with the absence of furniture that
told my wife about it and remarked
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