The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1913-07-25
letter CLEARS
BOY OF BLAME
Parker Audrian, Well Known in
Kennewick, Held Merely as
Witness in Murder Case


mentioned the name of Parker
Audrian, a graduate of the Kenne-
wick high school in 1912 and who
has been attending Pullman college
during the past year.
F. L. Audrian, the boys father,
was principal of the Finley school
for two years and is now superin-
tendent of the Kiona school. He
has written to this paper requesting
the publication of the district at
torney's letter. as printed below, in
order that the facts of the case may
be known by friends of the family
in Benton county.
July 18th, 1913.
F. L. Audrian,
4318 Winslow Place,
Seattle, Wash.
Dear Sir:
have your letter of the 14th inst.
relative to the holding of your boy as a
witness.
On July 4th, in broad daylight about
four o'clock in the afternoon, not far
from the public highway, and quite
close to three or four houses, and up
on the railroad track, which is itself
much travelled by pedestrians, cold
blooded murder was committed, an old
man about sixty years of age being
shot twice through the head, the per-
petrator Of the deed uhquestionably
killing the old man for his money.
Your boy, together with his chum, was
resting in the shade of the woods on a
little stream not more than $50 yards
from where the crime was committed.
They heard the shots fired. but thought
nothing of what was taking place
About 10 or Is minutes after the shots
were fired they came out upon the
main railroad track within 100 yards of
where the old man was lying almost
dead, and in the opposite direction
therefrom short distance they saw a
man jump into the weeds and out of
sight. Half minute after seeing this
man disappear they discovered the old
man. Thereafter they went to neigh
boris house about quarter of a mile
away and told this neighbor of the old
mans condition and returned with him
to the scene of the crime. telling him
that they had seen this man.
Immediately thereafter your boy and
his companion disappeared and were
not heard of until some four or five
days thereafter. The party. who noti-
fled the sheriff and coroner told the
latter two when they arrived what the
boys had told him, which was that they
had seen this strange man jump into a
certain clump of weeds and disappear.
Immediate investigation was made to
ascertain what, if any, tracks or other
indication of anyone having jumped in
to the weeds might be found, and alb
solutely no trace of anyone was found
therein. The gentlemen to whom the
boys reported was, of course, some
what excited himself and the sheriff s
office and all parties interested or who
made any investigation or offered any
solution of the problem, more or less
suspicioned the two boys, and it was a
very unwise thing for them to have
left in the manner in which they did.
Had they stayed and explained the en-
tire situation to the sheriff's office
feel satisfied that the guilty party
would have been captured, whereas,
suspicion resting upon the boys to the
extent to which it did, the officers
spent considerable time trying to To-
cate them. They were brought into
the sheriff's Office very late one eve
ming and held there until the next day,
when l. together with the sheriff, ques-
toned them quite fully regarding all
the details and of course were all alb
solurely certain that they had nothing
whatsoever to do with the killing of
this old man. They are both good,
clean cut, intelligent, we'll appearing
young men and told their stories sep
arately and corroborated each other in
nearly every detail. We explained to
them that suspicion naturally rested
upon them and they said they realized
that, and realized that they had made a
mistake in not waiting for the officers
to show up, but explained that they
were inexperienced in that sort of
tllng, had never come in contact with
such a matter, hence acted in the man
ner in which they did.
am not absolutely certain as to
What portion of the Jail the boys occu-