The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-05-12
But No Arrests Have Yet
Been Ordered in Broad
well Mystery
WITNESSES TAKEN BE-
FORE INVESTIGATORS
Theory Gaining Strength Is
Woman Was Fully Clothed
WhenShe Entered Garden

The second week of the investigation
Of the murderer Of Mrs. Harry f. Broad
well on Saturday ight, May 8, started
off under accel ed speed as witness
after witness supenaed before the
investigator secret session and the
story Of tF drder night was pieced to-
gether M as picture puzzle is put
into shs There are a great number of
pieces xsS.his murder puzzle and it has
been .Sessary to gather evidence from
dis w points in New England but it
ID ISs.eyed that the much wanted pieces
are .oeing discovered.
Whether the puzzle is approaching that
point Of solution which would warrant
an arrest being made is a matter which
the investigators will say little about at
this time, although there have been in
timations to-day that satisfactory prog
ress is being made toward such devel.
opment in the case. The public of Barre
and Of the state, which has taken vital
interest in this case and which desires
that every effort be made to run down
the murderer, may rest assured that such
effort is being made under most capable
investigators.
These investigators are showing no
let-up in their work, the proceedings con
tinuing all day Sunday and up to
o'clock this morning and were resumed
this morning with the same tireless en..
ergy. States Attorney Davis has been
summoning large number of witnesses,
and this forenoon solid session Of tes-
timony taking was held Some Of the
witnesses have been heard before and
they have been recalled to tally up some
of the obscure points of previous evil
dence, while in some instances new wit
nesses have already been presented or
are expected TO appear.
In the meantime the belief seems TO
be growing stronger in some quarters
that Mrs. Broadweil was entirely clothed
when she was either carried or forced
into the Wheelock garden late on the
night of May and that she was di-
vested of her clothing, except as to shoes,
stockings and gloves, at the spot where
her body was found the next morning
with neck encircled with mans hand
kerchief and an article of the woman's
own apparel
The fact that the woman's hat and her
gold watch were found on the garden soil
just inside of the fence might Indicate
that she was clothed and that struggle
ensued from the bypath to the low wire
fence and that the hat and the watch
were brushed off The watch had been
attached to the woman's waist by an
ordinary clasp pin which might have be-
come unfastened in the encounter. That
the surface of the ground just inside the
fence was disturbed as if by struggle
or by the dragging of some object was
plainly seen on the morning of the dis
eovery of the body, while the grass Just
under the few strands of the wire fence
had been recently trampled The hat
and the watch lay near the disturbed
spot.
But from that spot to the place where
the body was found, only few feet
away, there was no indication of any
disturbance of the ground, the inference
being that the body was carried from
the scene of the struggle farther into
the garden from the fence and from the
bypath along which some persons nights
be passing even at that late hour.
This theory of the attack continues
with the belief that the body was di.
vested Of clothing st the very place
where the body was found and that the
assault and murder were committed
there. the various articles of the woman's
wearing apparel being nearby Or under
the body as it lay, face down, the morn,
ing of the discovery. IL will be recalled
that the buttons torn from the clothing
were found there either in the folds Of
the clothing or on the ground close by.
Thu finrnr fNY hn ate xtaiinxF
kid gloves, which were still on her hands
bound behind her back, were much soiled
as if by contact with moist earth This
condition of the gloves bears out in part
the theory that the woman was attacked
and murdered in the garden. There were
no tracks visible, perhaps because of the
fact that rain fell during the greater
part of the morning hours, which would
have tendency to obliterate them, of
course, The traces of disturbance OF the
soil Just inside the fence had not, how
ever, been entirely wiped out, possibly
due to the fact that the soil seemed
more compact there and would have re-
tanned an impression longer under the
pelting of the rain.
III this theory is correctly founded it
would seem to show that Mrs Broadwell
was rushed from some street nearby
into the dark bypath. In this connection
it may be said that some men emerging
from the bowling alley on Pearl street
shortly after ii o'clock that Saturday
night saw young woman on the street
and remarked that it was rather late for
her to be out, only to be surprised mo-
ment later to see a man step cut of q
shadow and meet the woman as if by
appointment. The men who came out
of the bowling alley said that the woman
they saw was apparently young girl.
and the incident may have had no con-
nection with the Broadwell case.
1t is such an incident, however, that
caused some of the ministers of Barre
to speak burning words from their pull
pits yesterday concerning the alleged
laxity of morals in some sections of the
city. A call was made for the wiping
out of places of alleged disrepute and
for cleaning UP Of all breeding place T
crime.