The Topeka state journal., 1909-01-18
ALL FOUND DEAD.
w. L. SeeIey, Wife and Daugh-
ter Of st. Joe, Mo.
Discovered Kneeling by the Bath
Tub in Their Home.
HEADS UNDER WATER
Murder and Suicide Is the
Theory Advanced.
Head of Family Known to Have
Been Hard Up.
UNDER WATER

Seattle, Jan 1S-W. L. Seeley and
attorney and former national bank ex-
aminer for Illinois under Comptroller
of the Currency Eckles, his wife. Mrs.
Kate NJ. Seeley, a member of the Ma
tionaI Society of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, and his daughter
Miss Rene Seeley, a student at the
University of Washington and a mem
Der of the Delta Gamma society, were
found dead in bath room of their
home. 307 Eighteenth avenue, in the
fashionable capital hill district at l
o'clock Sunday afternoon. They had
been dead since the previous Thursday.
The women, each of whom was clad in
night robes, had been murdered by be-
ing struck on the head, evidently with
a hammer. There was no mark of Vio-
lence on Seeley. He is believed to have
been partially chloroformed and then
drowned in the bathtub. All three
were kneeling at one side of the bath
tub with their heads submerged in the
water. A steamer trunk was on the
bodies of Seeley and his wife.
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 under
wear, shoes and trousers. His night
gown, which was bloodstained from the
bodies of the two women. was. found
beneath a clean pillow in the room oc-
cupied by him and his wife. The pill
low on which Mrs Seeley mad peeh
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. Illinois, and had engaged
in the practice of law wherever he had
been for the past thirty years
Seeley was 55 years of age, his wife
about three years his junior and his
daughter % years of age. The bodies
were found by Guy NJ. Smelzer, afff-
r. SeibbelI a friend of the family
The family could not be communicat-
ed with after 9 o'clock Thursday night
when Smelzer talked over the tele-
phone with Miss Seeley. Efforts to
get into communication with them af-
ter that We're unsuccessful The only
thing on the premises was huge
black cat which was locked in the
basement and which since Friday mad
been fed by neighbors.
Although keeping up the appear
ance of prosperity, Seeley had been
forced to borrow money for his last
months house rent from w. W. VIII
shire, an attorney from whom he rent
ed desk room in the New York block
Police detectives searched the
house for weapons with which the
murders had been committed, but
were unable to find any bloodstained
anything of value was taken from the
house. Every window and door was
found to have been securely locked.
Stood High in st. Joe.
ST Toe Jan 1S-W L. Seeley, for
three years was treasurer of st. Jo-
seph stock yards company here and
director in the stock yards bank. His
financial condition while he was here
was thought tc, be good. He was
member of the best clubs and so
cietv. His daughter was a favorite In
society. Col John Donovan, general
manager of the stock yards company
when told of Seeley's tragic death,
exclaimed "Why. it's too horrible to
believe. Seeley could not have done
anything of that kind. He was too
much of a man."