The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1916-11-17
PONTIAC FAMILY
THINK DAUGHTER
WAS ASSAULTED
Explain Why They Declined
to Investigate Her Sud-
den Disappearance.
DENY CHARGE THAT
SHE ENDED HER LIFE
Autopsy Shows Christine Diemer's
Neck Was Broken Re-
lativeS Held.

Pontiac, H., Nov. 16.-Eagerness Of
Jacob c. Diemer. wealthy retired farm
er, his wife, Mrs. Gertrude Marie Die
mer. and their daughter, Magdalene, to
: dsprove that Christine, anOtherdaugh-
! ter. had killed herself. resulted in all
three being held for the Grand Jury
Tuesday on the charge Of killing her.
| The Diemers, strict churchgOers,
look upon suicide as an objectionable
sin. When Christine's body was taken
from the Vermilion River, Nov s. sui
eide would have been the verdict il
!! the parents and sister had not demand
ed an autopsy.
The autopsy proved to them to their
great relief that Christine had not
been guilty of self-destruction. They
do not consider the charge of man
slaughter too great a price for clear
ing Christine's name of the stigma
of suicide, and will not permit the sup
position of self-destructiOn to be urged
in their defense.
They were arrested on warrants
sworn out by Coroner Myers, in ac-
cordance with the inquest verdict, and
gave bonds of $4,000 each, and in the
evening in their home, they told cor
respondents that, in their belief, NOR
bid aversion to blue suit led Chris
tine to her death.
1t was suit she mad worn when.
for time last summer, she Was Il pa
tient at a Peoria sanitarium. To hunIOr
her, it was sent to cleaners and on
Oct. 81 her sister Magdaiene brought
it home. Christine received it with
aversion. That night Mrs. DIemer and
Magdalene went to 4 picture show.
Christine sat in the kitchen ard read
the papers with her father. She spoke
of going to Florida for the winter.
After a while she arose, her father
says, and went quietly from the room,
without saying goodnight as she
usually did. Her father supposed, he
says, that she had gone to bed. Mrs.
Diemer and Magdalene came home,
and the family retired without looking
into Christine's room.
Next morning Magdalene went to
call her sister and there was no an
swer. She called her father. Chris
tine was not there. The bed had not
been made up, but the could not tell
from that whether it had been occu-
pied any part Of the preceding night
because it wah Christine's practice
mot to make up her bed until just be-
fore retiring. On the floor was a
house dress and nightgown.
The blue dress and hat 20 which
Christine also had an aversion had dis
appeared. The parents and sister con-
cluded, they say, that she had taken
train for Florida, to forestall her
fathers plan of having Magdalene ac-
company her, as she resented the I'M
nlicatiOn that she needed care.
Her father wanted to make IN
quiries, but Magdalene reminded HIM
that Christine already felt herself dis
graced by her stay at the sanltarlum
and would never forgive them if they
caused a commotion over her depar-
ture, and it was agreed to wait for the
letter they thought would soon come.
Christine had gone away twice before
without disclosing her plans, and, as
she had spent last winter in Florida,
they did not doubt, they say, that she
would find her way there.
But, while they waited for a letter,
Mr.. and Mrs. Frank Haines, rowing
across the Vermillion, which flows
sluggishly a block from the Diemer
home, found the young woman's body
floating in mid-stream and towed it to
shore.
Diemer, hearing that a woman's
body had bes1 found, at first dismissed
the thought that it might be hisdaugh-
ter, because she was TO him sail q