Weekly journal-miner., 1913-09-10
(From Wednesdays Daily)

Stabbed ten times through the heart and other vital parts, the body of Jesus Esparcia, a railroad laborer. yesterday morning was found doubled up and partly ourIed in a handicapped grave but twen- ty-hve feet distant from the puohC highway less than a quarter CT a mile from Fort Whipple. Al though the Sheriff's office has ar rested a suspect named Juan Fer nandez. ii is conceded that the mur- der is one of the most bafffing and at the same time most fiendlsh Tn the history of the county.
 No one short of fiend could have inflicted the ten terrible thrusts. any one of which could have proved fatal. The deliberaton with which the murderer went about his task of first dragging the body of his victim to concealment and thence into the grave which he dug mostly with his hands and fingers was al most beyond the conceptio.. ot the Coroner and his jurors during thelr inquest yesterday.
 A Pair of Tan Shoes.
 A strong chain of evidence wa. | woven yesterday, during the III, uuest. about the suspect and should he be found guilty of the murder there is no question but that the most instrumental factor in proving h:s guilt will be tan pair of shoes Tie shoes were taken in charge 5N the Sheriff and his deputies imme diately after the body was found Shortly afterwards the shoes wer, fitted into depressions in the creel nearby and, according to the inquls itors, found to fit exactly. Nhei ouizzed yesterday the suspect, how ever. told a straightforward story in which he denied the acquaint lance of the murdered man or an, connection with the murder.
 Time of the Crime.
 The baffling mystery traces bac to some time between 9:3O an ! l0 o'clock Monday night. At tha time Indians camping near the hu and tent of the suspect heard verb' conflict between three Mexicans. A Indian woman and young boy pas: | inr the scene at the time saw tn
 three engaged in this performance
 Then all became quiet. A te. minutes later, 1t was brought out
 the evidence at the inquest, A.
 Oliver, who is stationed at the Fo Whipple post, heard noise whlc
 aroused his suspicious. Deferred | members of his family, he decide
 not to investigate that night. but h suspicious were aroused agaln ear
 yesterday morning when the susp
 cious Indians told him of the quarr 5 and of the subsequent disappearan,
 of all three Mexicans from Il camp. ) Convinced that there had be-
 foul play of some sort, MT. Olly land the Indians investigated. 1T
 grave was stumbled upon and tn Sheriff Keeler was summoned.
 By s o'clock the entire force C deputies was at work upon the ca: | Coroner Charles H. McLane swo tt in a jury and immediately Col y, Irenced upon the work of inque 1t In a short space of time the office Il, had arrested the suspect, procur l. some exceptionally strong evlden h against him and reported to ,n Coroner's Jury.
 in Murder Deliberate and Preme
 tated.
 re That the murder was delber; he and premeditated, the officials .ir certain. In the fresh foot mai SC in the sands of the creek leadi be from the suspects camp to 1g grave can be seen impressions wh or correspond identically with the D e. portions and peculiarities of nd shoes which the suspect admits ,r- wore Monday night It was poln ile out that the murdered man was il
 ing from some pursuing pers Is, that al intervals he swerved re- course and finally managed to 1y, to the road. O. The pursuer apparently. Tn or nd to head of his victim, ran al' gre the bed of the creek and nm; nd succeeded in heading him of in or roadway not more than 2OO va
 from the old commissary headqt the ters of Fort Whipple. Then. ino victim was apparently felled wit ln- rock. After his victim was ern knocked unconscious the fiend I the ceeded to inhict his terrible WI ent With his work only partly c his pleted. the murderer dragged ed, victim through the brush for at the twenty-five feet to the bottom of and road enbankment. A blood-cov' Dth- rock here and there, coupled ' to a trail of blood from the road to
 grave and the trodden brush, sho
 the course taken. The corpse
 dragged by the head, impression
 the soft soil indicating as m
 Then. while the murderer went rge search of an implement to dig Ire,, grave. the bleeding corpse boa thrust to one side.
 ,th- With the dark night his e a shield from detection, the murd fur went to the old Commissary b
 at ino from where he secured a erta gate hook. This instrument was. ton terially assisted by the work ot
 hands utilized as a shovel.