The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-09-14
Mother OF CHILD and
Two others ARRESTED
Woman Claimed. lllsiwat Infant Had
Been ThrSwn ',anto The cistern
Shortly After Its Birth, And Lime
Thrown Upon II.

Jackson, Miss, Sept 14.-Mrs. Ada
Womack, c. F.tKendrick and Mrs. N.
Vance have been arrested as a conse-
quence of the dfscoverey of the body
of an infant in "a cistern under
boarding house 'inAt this city yesterday.
They will be held to await the action
of the jury, Mrs. Vance on a charge
of murder and Mrs. Womack and Ken
drick as ACCESSORIES after the fact.
Mrs. Vance, who stated Tuesday
that the body was placed in the cis-
tern by enemies, has admitted that
she knew the child's body had been
placed in the citern, but that it was
so long ago shet did not know it was
the same one they had reference to.
The body was. thrown into the els
tern the latter part of April and lime
was thrown into the cistern the next
day, and several times since. The re-
port that the body of an adult had
been found in the cistern was untrue,
as a formation of the lime in the bot
tom of the cistern led to this belief.
Mrs. Vance made a statement to
Chief of Police Allen shortly after
her arrest, telling how the child died
a few minutes after its birth; that it
was kept in the house all day and she
gave it to a negro and asked him to
bury it; that she did not know, till
some time afterward that it had been
thrown into the cistern.
In her. statement Tuesday, which
appeared in the News, she said she
had put the lime in the cistern be-
cause of the dampness, and did it for
sanitary purposes only, as her son
slept in the room.
Mrs. Vance submitted to arrest qui
etly, and was soon behind the bars at
the city Jail. Kendrick, when arrest
ed by Patrolman Ebb Taylor and San
itary Inspector Pope, remarked:
That's what man gets for fooling
with a - woman" and accom-
panied the officers without further
comment.
Not so with Mrs. Womack, She
cried and protested her innocence, but
went to the police station without
trouble.
The arrests followed a talk with
Miss Mamie Loudell, who formerly
lived at Mrs. Vance's. She knew Of
the birth of the child, witnessed it
through a hole in the door, accom-
panied by another young woman. She
told how, after the child was born, it
was wrapped up and hid in the wash
stand drawer. She went to the show
the next night with Mrs. Vance's daugh-
ters, and when they returned the
body had disappeared.
She was told by Mrs. Vance's daugh-
ters that the child had been thrown
into the cistern. She remained at the
Vance house for some time after this,
and last Sunday told the story to a
young man friend, who wrote Mayor
Crowder. The letter was traced and
I 1T was learned Miss Loudell knew all
about the, affair. i'<
She did not hesitate to tell what
she knew, even giving the name Of
the physician who delivered the child.
This was Dr;uJohn'F. Hunter, who
is absent from the city, and it cannot
be learned whether the child was alive
when he left, but as DIR. Hunter will
be witness in the case this will all
come out. i;i M
DR.. Hunter is ones of the leading
physicians of the state, and upon his
testimony as to whether the childSa
alive and healthy when, he left the
house hangs the fate of Mrsss Vance,
charged with murder, eds Mrs. We
mack and sKendick, Ffo will A.
charged with accessories e. the crli