The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-08
Mrs. Elma McFadden De-
spOndent Over Ill Health.
She Also Worried About High
Cost of Living.
DAUGHTER FINDS THE BODY
Suicide So Evident No Inquest
VIII Be Held.
Son Breaks Into Tears When
Telling of Tragedy.

Hanging from a piece clothesline
tied to a water pipe in the basement,
her shoes on the cement floor and
short stepladder nearby, the lifeless
body of Mrs. Elma T. McFadden, of
1922 Buchanan street. was found by
her 21-year-old daughter, Lilly, at
1890 O'Clock today. Suicide was evl-
dent and DR.. o. F. Narcotic, coroner
said it was such a plain case that no
inquest will be held.
Mrs McFadden was 46 years of age
and has been in poor health. She Is
the wife of E. Z. McFadden, santa
Fe switchman. Members of the fam
lily, while never dreaming she would
take her own life said today she had
been worrying a great deai about the
increased cost of living and about her
physical condition. Not long ago she
took up spiritualism and later another
form of worship, members of her fam
lily say.
Was Alone in House.
From $50 O'Clock this morning I'M
til 1880 O'Clock Mrs. McFadden was
alone in the house. The youngest
boy, Harold, aged IA years, was given
permission to visit another boy in the
neighborhood Lilly is employed in
the office of the treasurer of the
Santa Fe and was at work. Ray, II
years of age. is employed by the To-
peka Edison company and was also
at work Mr. McFadden was at the
Santa Fe yards.
Harold was the first home. He
was surprised to find that his mother
was not there preparing dinner.
Il thought maybe she had gone to
the grocery store" he said, but after
a while l found her hat and L won
dered where she was. Ray came
home and mother still did not come.
Lilly went up stairs and looked
around and just after Ray left the
Il u.
into the basement She found mother
down there"
Then the boy broke in.o tears He
was sitting upright in stiff kitchen
chair with people walking around
him. He was sitting where he could
see the body of his mother stretched
upon a couch in the dining room.
Dead an Hour When Found.
Ray, the older boy was called back
after the body was found am he and
Harold cut the rope and carried their
mother upstairs. DIR. c. B. Van Horn
was called. He said Mrs. McFadden
had been dead about an hour at the
time he examined her.
1t was apparent frorl the arrange
ments in the basement that Mrs. Nc
Fadden planned suicide. The place
she selected was almost dark. The
furnace stands between thai place and
the stairway. 1t was inside d sort of
coal or kind1ing bin. Water pipes and
gas pipes run close together perhaps
eight and one-ha1f feet above the ce-
ment floor.
A short stepladder was still stand
ing against the pipe leading to the
gas meter and perhaps two feet from
the point where the body was suspend
ed. On the floor was a roll of clothes
line that had not been used. On the
floor in a pile of chips were found
the low shoes Mrs. McFadden had
been wearing.
The theory of the physicians and
of Hugh Larimer, sheriff who visited
the place a few minutes later, was that
Mrs. McFadden stood on the steplad-
der and tied the rope around her neck
and to the water pipe, then swung off
into space. Her feet were perhaps
eighteen inches from the floor when
she was found. Life was extinct and
the body was almost cold.