Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-11-14
MOTHER SHOT
BY DAUGHTER
IN SLEEPER
Claimed She Thought Par
ent Was a Burglar Enter
ing Her Berth; Girl and
Young Man Detained.

Philadelphia, Pa, Nov. 13.-- Mrs.
Elizabeth Myers of New York was
shot and killed by her daughter on a
Pennsylvania railroad train near here
today. The girl says she shot her
mother in mistake for a robber.
They were on their way from Salem.
Va, to New York. The girl, Gladys,
and passenger, w. H. Cuthbert OF
Lynchburg, Va, were detained. The
shooting occurred near Bristol, Pa,
and the train continued it's journey to
Trenton when the injured woman was
hurried to a hospital, where she died.
Stories Contradictory. ..
Miss Myers was so hysterical over
the affair that she could scarcely tell
connected story. An element OF mys'
terry was injected into the tragedy be-
cause Of contradictory statements oy
Cuthbert and the girl. Cuthbert says
he did not know the mother and
daughter and only volunteered his
services to them after the shooting.
Miss Myers Is said to have told the
Trenton police that Cuthbert was
travelling with herself and mother.
According to the Trenton police
Miss Myers said that while lying IN
her berth she heard a noise as II some
one was climbing into her berth. Be-
lieving she was in danger from an IN
truder she fired. Her mother. who was
returning from the women's retlrlns
room. received the bullet.
No person was permitted to see
Miss Myers or Cuthbert, but It was
learned that Miss Myers had told the
hospital authorities that the porrer on
the sleeping car had taken the re-
volver from her. 4sH s,zs. y-ga
ssF cuthbert Tells Story.
Cuthbert said that his home was In
LyncIburg and that he had happened
to he travelling in the car behind that
occupied by Mrs. Myers and her
daughter. GAS the train approached
the bridge across the Delaware river
south of Trenton" he is reported to
have said. II went to the front plat
form of my car intending to step OF
the train for a few minutes when the
train stopped at Trenton. I believe the
shooting was entirely accidental" ne
"As the train passed
through Coryden I heard the noise OF
shot in the car ahead. l quickly
onened the door and saw Mrs. Myers
living in the aisle in her night dress.
Her daughter was standing beside her
shrieking and in great distress.
"I shot my mother! Get a doctor!
she cried. She was hysterical and we
had trouble in getting her quiet.
''The porter of the car, the con-
ductor and several passengers who
had hurried to the scene, carried Mrs.
Myers into a drawindg room compart-
ment and we stopped the flow OF blood
as hest we could until Mrs. Myers was
removed to the ambulance at Tren-
ton, Miss Myers told me she dreamed
a burglar was pulling aside the cur
tain Of her berth and that she reached
under her pillow, got the revolver ana
shot her mother. It seems that Mrs.
Myers was about to enter the berth
At the moment her daughter dreamed
she saw a burglar In the aisle. Miss
MYERS said she was startled and fired
before she was fully awake.
Additions to her story were made
later by Miss Myers. Mrs. Myers,
she said was the wife of J. Ralph N.Y.
ers. proprietor of hotel in Green's
burg. Pa. Mother and daughter were
IN their way to New York where the
daughter was to purchase a wedding
trosseau. as she was to be married IN
1une to J. Blair Dillard of Salem, Va,
where a son of Mrs. Myers lives. Mrs.
Myers and the daughter had been
visiting the younger Myers at Salem
for some time and recently returned
home to Greensburg and started yes
terday from Pittsburgh for New York.
In Pittsburgh they bought police
revolver.