The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1910-06-03
ALMA KELLNER
MURDERED.
~ Va -
Body Found Within Five
Blocks of Home.
Had Been Missing Since Decem-
Der 8 Last and All Efforts to
Locate Her Abandoned.

Louisville, Ky.-At last little Alma
Kellner has been found, but only hel
dead body.
The body of the little daughter Cd
Mr.. and Mrs. Fred Kellner was found
In an unused cellar of st. Johns pa
rochial school, Clay and Walnut
streets.
The discovery OF the body was made
by Dick Sweets,a plumber in the en-
ploy of Halter and Slender, while he
was engaged in pumping water out
of the cellar.
When Sweets had pumped most OF
the water out of the cellar he saw a
childs shoe stick up from lot of
damp debris Taking hold of the foot
he found that he had the body of a
child wrapped in a carpet in his
grasp.
AS he unrolled the carpet the flesh
fell from the child's body, and the
sterlch was so terrible that Sweets
could not stand it.
He telephoned to his employers and
to police headquarters. Chief of Po-
lice Lindsay hurried to the spot and
sent to the Kellner home for Mr..
Kellner.
! Mr.. Frank Fehr, cousin of Fred
Kellner, arrived at the scene with the
childs father a short time after the
body had been discovered, and after
viewing the remains Mr.. Fehr said
that he was certain that it was the
body of little Alma. Mr.. Fehr spoke
as follows:
There Is not the slightest doubt in
my mind that Alma met her death as
result of foul play. This is all | can
say at the present time.but of this
much l am sure"
Mr.. Fehr's theory is that the child
was killed before she was thrown in
to the cellar through a trap door.
The cellar in which the body was
discovered is six feet wide and 1G
feet deep,and Is reached by two en-
frances, one a trap door inside the
schoolhouse, which has not been
opened for many months, and the 9th
err Is a door near the side entrance
20 the schoolhouse, between the home
of Father Schumann and the school
house.
The coroner's Investigation shows
that six ribs and the back of the
child were broken, and quick lime
was found in the carpet in which
the body was wrapped.
Investigation of the place where
the body was found shows that a
hole was scooped out in the cellar
and the body put in 1t.
Alma Kellner disappeared on the
morning of December 8, 1909, and
was never seen alive again by any of
her family or people.
She had started to a nearby Cath
Ollie church to attend the o'clock
mass.
Many theories were advanced as
to the cause of her disappearance,
but the one most generally accepted
was that she had been kidnapped,
and was being held for ransom.
Negotiations were opened at va
rious times through advertisements in
Cincinnati newspapers, but no def
mite terms were ever reached, and the
general opinion prevailed that the
FAM was never really in commun-
ication with the real kidnapers
| The theory which has the most ad-
herents here now Is the one that
places the crime at the door OF kid
napers.
Another theory as to the disappear
ance of the child was that her moth
er. who was a strong Catholic, had
concealed the little girl, and posi-
bly, had put her In a convent for the
purpose of inducing her husband, who
was a Mason, to renounce his ale
glance to Masonry and Join the Cath
J Ollie church. The finding Of the body
explodes this theory.
Another theory which. the finding
OF the body sxplodes is that the par
ents OF the child had her hidden
out and through confederates would
receive big money reward from
Frank Fehr for her return
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