Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-03-09
ORPEI EXPECTS
To Be Indicted
BY GRAND JURY
TODAY
(By United Press Association.)

WAUKEGAN, March 6.-The chain
of circumstantial evidence that states
Attorney Ralph J. Dady has woven
about W. H Orpet, University of Wis
consin student held for the murder of
pretty Marion Lambert was detailed
to the Lake county Grand Jury today.
Dady confidently predicted that an
Indictment would be voted tonight or
tomorrow against Orpet.
Frank Lambert, father of Marion,
who discovered her body in the woods,
was the first witness before the Grand
Jury. He was followed by Josephine
Davis and Verne Jackson, girl chums
of Marion who testified regarding her
keeping the tryst Of death with Orpet.
The Lake County Grand Jury met
today to hear evidence concerning the
tragedy of pretty Marion Lambert, an
Is year old Lake Forest High School
girl for whose mysterious death VIII
liam H. Orpet, University Of Wiscon-
sin junior, is in jail charged with muir
der. States Attorney Ralph J. Dady
planned to reveal a chain of circum-
stantial evidence before the jury, with
a request for speedy indictment. Or
pet and his counsel admitted the prob
ability of Orpets indictment, but ad-
ded that they were reserving their
strength for the trial. Orpet and his
attorneys predicted it will be estab-
lished that Marion committed suicide.
Facts in the tragedy admitted by the
defense and the state, are:
Young Orpet and Marion, friends
for years, had trodden the primrose
path in their love idyl, a romance of
the forests on the great Cyrus H.
Mccormick estate near Lake Forest.
Marion had written Orpet that she
feared the consequences of their
trigue. On the morning of Feb. 9,
Marion left her home on the Kuppen-
heimer estate where her father is
chief engineer. On the evening Of
Feb. Young Orpet left Madison, Wis
consin the university town, after ar
ranging an alibi to conceal his depart
ure. On the morning of Feb. 9, Mar
ian and Orpet met in the woods near
the ''three trees" a favorite trysting
spot for Lake Forest youths and maid
ems. On the afternoon of Feb. 10,
Marian's father, Frank Lambert and
a friend, William Marshall, foun
Marian's body in the woods. It lay
in the snow, apparently undisturbed,
as if Marian were asleep. One han
was ungloved. The other held her
school books. On the evening of Feb
II, Orpet was arrested at Madison.
The next day he was formally charged
with murder. An autopsy disclosed
that cyanide Of potassium, taken in
liquid or powder form, caused Mar
ian's death. Crystals of this same poi
son were found beneath Marian's fng-
er nails. Cyanide of potassium was
used in gardening by Marian's father
and by Orpet's father, William O. Or
pet, who is gardener on the McCor-
mick estate, in fighting garden insect
pests. The poison also was easy to
access to Marian at her high school
labratory and to Orpet at the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin labratory. Young
Orpet hoped to marry Miss Celestial
Youker, an instructor at the state
Normal College at DeKalb, III. Miss
Lambert was not in the condition she
feared. Orpet's story is that Marian
killed herself when he left her in th4
woods after telling her he was