Omaha daily bee., 1919-10-28
Bodies Arc Located.


officially announced here that Lieuts.
Cecil H. Connolly of San Diego and
Frederick B. Waterhouse of Weiser,
Idaho, army aviators missing since
August Il, were slain in Lower Cali
fornia by two Mexican fishermen.
The announcement was made
upon the arrival here of the de-
stroyer Aaron Ward, bringing the
bodies of the two aviators from
Bahia Los Angeles on the Gulf of
Lower California, to which point
they had flown after losing their
way in border patrol flight from
Yuma, Ariz., to San Diego.
According to Maj. R. S. Bratton,
head of the military part sent from
here to recover the bodies, the slay-
ers were from a Mexican sloop,
their identity is known to both the
United States and Mexican govern
ments, and steps are being taken to
capture them.
Sufferings Endured.
The destroyer also brought a part
of story of the sufferings endured
by the young aviators in the form
OF notes scrawled IN part on the
wings and fuselage of the De Havi-
land airplane in which Connolly and
Waterhouse made their last flight.
Some of these messages, evidently
written when the aviators had al
most lost hope of being found, were
of such a tragic nature that Major
Bratton asked the newspaper re-
porters to refrain from using them,
out of consideration of the officers
families. T.
Major Bratton said that the two
aviators had"gone 10 davs without
food. or at least without much to
sustain them. The facts that drew
them far from their air path re-
mained with them until the very
last. Maj. Theodore Macauley,, in
one Of his flights to find them, flew
within 60 miles of the spot where
they stood guarding their plane.
Later, on the afternoon of Septem-
Der 6, they were landed from a
canoe on the shores of Bahia Los
Angles, by the same fishermen who
are accused of having killed them
five days later, and at that time were
only II miles from Los Flores Sill
yer mines, where they might have
received protection and food.
Describe Losing Way.
One of their messages, scrawled
on the airplane fuseiage with a knife
or nail, gave details of how the
aviators lost their way. The mes
sage said the airmen remained IN
the air four hours and five minutes.
that they ran into a rain storm and
lost their sense of direction. When
thew sighted the Gulf of California
thew thought they were flying up
the coast instead of southwark along
the east coast of the Gull OF Cali
fornia.
Another message traced on the
wings and fuselage told how the alr-
men attempted vainly for two days
to catch fish to appease their hunger.
They then started walking north
ward toward the border, but re-
turned to their airplane in SO hours
when their supply of water became
exhausted. The airmen drank the
water from the radiator of the air.
plane. This proved sufficient to al
Law their thirst up to the time they
were taken to Bahia Los. Angeles
from Guadeloupe bay, where the
plane landed, by the fishermen:
The party, which left San Diego
October 16, included. besides Ma
ior Bratton, who Is attached to the
18th Infantry at Nogales, Ariz., two
other army officers and several
officials and soldiers of the north
ern district of Lower California,
and Joe Allen Richards, mining
engineer. who first reported finding