New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-06-15
DIES TO AVOID Wedding
Betrothed to One Man, Young
Governess Loved Another.
REPORTER FINDS THE BODY
While Police Were Searching,
Dead Girl Lay Huddled IN
Coal Bin at Home.

Minnie *. Vent, the young SoNernesS
employed by Eben E. Whitman, q cotton
merchant, OF No. $50 East 5Sth street. who
had been missing since last THURSDAY,
chose the day on which she was to have
bee,l married to take her own life. Her
bocy was found yesterday afternoon huo-
lied il the coal bin in the sub-basement
Of the home of her aunt Mrs. Annie
Censor at No 2oS5 Lexington avenue
4 revolver lay near her right hand, the
fingers Of which were powder marked,
ano there was an ugly contact bullet wound
in her right temple. which the Coroner's
physician said had caused instant death.
In the dead girls pocketbook were found
six picture postal cards, addressed to her
two brothers, her fance. Ludwig Reichold,
employed as superintendent by the Charles
Z. Kiewert Chemical Company, in Cort-
fandt street, who had expected to marry
her last-Friday: to her aunt and uncle. and
to ,ars.. Whitman. wife of her employer.
The cards told the story of her unhappi-
ness and her intent TO take her own life,
and asked forgiveness of all.
Writing TO her elder brother, Eric j.
Wentz. who is married and lives in The
Bronx and who had been searching the
hospitals and norgues for the last few
days for q trace of her, she said:
This viii. I guess. be the last any of you
hear from me. Take my advice and don't
love ! have loved and must pay the PEN
atty with rly life I was to marry to-day,
but instead I Gle by my own hand. God
Will her younger brotherl. ] feel sorry for
him Lovingly, SISTER MINNIE. .
Betrothed Is Heartbroken
The message she left for Raichold, her
intended, was shorter. and bafied the
heartbroken young man yesterday in its
abstractness.. he said he had never known
that she loved any one else. He had re-
Gently furnished cosey little apartment
in Port Chester for his intended bride. and
he said yesterday she had gone to see it
with him and seemed very happy in the
thought of their approaching marriage.
She had promised TO meet him last Thurs
day night al her aunt's home, in Lexing-
ton avenue and they were to talk over
their final plans. Friday they were TO get
2 license. and then be married quietly by
z minister they had in mind. She wrote
10 him simply asking his forgiveness for
her act and said there was 40 other way
out Of il for her.
On the day we are TO be married / do
thai which costs me my life she wrote
Her relatives and her employer said yes
terday that they dId not know of any other
serious love affair that the girl had. Her
brother Eric. however, said that he knew
she had met a man several times who
lived in New Jersey. He would not say
who the man was, but after he had read
his dead sisters note he vowed he would
look him up
II was by the nerest chance that the
girls body was found. William. the girls
younger brother. lives with his aunt and
U;'cle, the Gensers. They had been at home
on Thursday night when Reichold called
with q large bouquet OF roses for his fan
cGe and they all sat up late waiting for her
10 come as she had promised. None Of
them heard any one come in at the base
nent door that night, and no pistol shot
was heard The aunt and uncle were at
home al the following day and heard no
one enter the basement, nor did they hear
z shot. although from the subsequent de-
veloprnents the girl must have entered the
basement either Thursday night or some
time Friday and crept into the coal bin
and shot herself. The bin was used by
Mrs Censor for storing some of the family
trunks and among them was one belonging
10 the dead sirl
Yesterday afternoon reporter called at
the house and asked for picture Of Min
ME VENT The aunt thought of the girls
trunk. and she and the newspaper man
went down cellar TO look for a picture in
the trunk The reporter stumbled over the
body as he entered the bin. and Mrs. Cen
ser. holding q lamp above him to see what
was the matter, saw the blood-stained face
Of her dead niece She tainted from the
shock
Disappeared Last Thursday.
The girl was last seen Thursday after
noon about o'clock On the previous Sat
,rdav she returned with the Whitman fam
ly from stay in Baltimore The Whit
mans went TO their country home AT Law
renee Long Island, and she accompanied
them. Wednesday she came 10 this city
and spent the day with her brother and
his wife in The Bronx. In the evening she
was at z theatre party, and a company Of
friends entertained her afterward.
She appeared very happy, her brother
sald- Thursday morning she left her broth
e-'s home in The Bronx and went to the
Whitman house, IN East SSth street, OBJ
tanned the keys from the caretaker and got
solne jewelry and uinkets she had left
there. She had telephoned Mrs Whitman
al Lawrence that she would come out that
night. and al the same time she had told
her 6ance that she would meet him at her
next day when 1t was found that she had
not appeared at either place. 1t is sup
pawnshop shortly before she shot herself.
None OF her relatives had seen IL before.
Minnie Wentz came 10 this country sew
eral years ago from Germany. She had
good pianist. Reichold met her two years
ago, he said, on board a steamer return
ing from visit to Germany She was
twenty years Of age and an orphan.