Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1916-03-07

YOUNG LADY WAS FOUND DEAD
She Died in the Woods With Her
School Books in Her Hands,
~ - of Poison.
of Poison.

Waukegan, i ILL.,, March 6.-Tht
Lake County grand jury met today
to hear evidence concerning the
tragedy of pretty Marian Lambert
an 1S-year-old Lake Forest High
School girl for whose mysterious
death William H. Orpet, University
OF Wisconsin junior, is in Jail charg-
ed with murder. States Attorney
Ralph j. Dady planned to reveal a
chain of circumstantial evidence be-
fore the jury, with request for
speedy Indictment. Orpet and his
counsel admitted the probability of
'Orpet's indictment, but added that
they were reserving their strength
for the trial. Orpet and his attor-
neys predicted it will be established
that Marian committed suicide.
Facts in the tragedy admitted by the
defense and the state, are:
Young Orpet and Marian, friends
for years, had trodden the primrose
path in their love idyl, romance of
the forests on the great Cyrus II. Nc
Cormick estate near Lake Forest.
Marian had written Orpet that she
feared the consequences Of their in
trigue. On the morning Of Feb. 8,
Marian left her home on the Kup-
penheimer estate where her father is
chief engineer. On the evening of
Feb. s Young Orpet left Madison,
Wis, the university town, after ar
ranging an alibi to conceal his de-
parture. On the morning of Feb. 8,
Marian and Orpet met in the woods
near the three trees" favorite
trysting spot for Lake Forest youths
and maidens. On the afternoon of
Feb. 10, Marion's father, Frank
Lambert and friend, William Mar
shall, found, Marian's, body in the
woods 1t lay in the snow, apparent
lY undisturbed, as if Marian were
asleep. One hand was ungloved. The
other held her school books. On the
evening of Feb. IL, Orpet was ar
rested at Madison The next day he
was formally charged with murder.
An autopsy disclosed that cyanide of
potassium, taken either. in liquid or
,oydo, fcrp, noucod NJor;op,c doafb
Crystals of this same poison were
found beneath Marians fingernails.
Cyanide of potassium was used in
gardening by Marian's father and
by Orpet's father, William O. Orpet,
who is gardener on the Mccormick
estate, in fighting garden insect
pests. The poison also was easy of
access to Marian at her high school
and to Orpet at the Uni
versity of Wisconsin laboratory.
Young Orpet hoped to marry Miss
Celestia Youker, an instructor at the
state normal college at DeKalk, Ill.
Miss Lambert was not in the condi-
ton she feared. Orpet's story is that
Marian killed herself when he left
her in the woods after telling her he
was through" and planned to
Miss Youker. He said he left
Marian crying, that she called to
him and he returned and found her
dying. Dady's theory is that Orpet
gave Marian poison instead OF the
abortive medicine her letters show
ed she had received from him before,
and that he gave it to her with will
full intent to clear his path of a
light Glove The question for the
grand jury to decide is the same that
faced a coroner's jury: Murder or
Which," The coroner's
jury, though holding Orpet because
Of circumstantial evidence, made no
to answer the question in
it's verdict rendered February 81.