Omaha daily bee., 1919-11-23
Officials Hope Mystery Will
Be Solved Through Recogni.
tion Of Features at Omaha
Undertaking Establishment. !.
CALHOUN DANCERS TAKEN
TO M0RGUE TO VIEW BODY
Clue Discovered Likely to
Bring About Identification
Tomorrow or Reveal Whvre
Crime Was Committed.

Important developments occurred
yesterday in the case of the mur-
dered girl whose body was found
Thursday morning in a Washington
county ravine Is miles north and
west of Omaha.
The body was brought to Omaha
last night and placed in John A.
Gentleman's mortuary. The cloth
ing worn by the girl when she was
found will be replaced on her body
today in an effort to aid idcntihca-
tion. 1t is hoped that among the
visitors to the mortuary today will
be somebody who will recognize her
features sufficiently to give strong
clew to her identity and lead at least
to partial solution of the mystery
that has baff1ed the police for three
days.
Attended Dance at Calhoun.
City Detective Andrew Jay Trapp
and corps of newspaper men
learned last night that girl answer
ing very closely the description and
appearance of the murdered girl at.
tended dance at Dick Johnson's
dance hall in Calhoun Saturday
night, November Is, in company
with two other girls and three men,
and that the girl had a quarrel with
her escort. tall, we'll dressed, good
looking fellow. 1t was also learned
that the sextet went to Calhoun
from Omaha in touring car with
curtains drawn and that they left
the dance in heated argument at
$50 Sunday mcrsing and started
toward Omaha. It was learned, too,
that the party was seen near the
first bridge this side of Calhoun half
an hour later. At that time their
car was stopped, the curtains drawn
tightly and all was quiet about <the
car.
Dancers View Body.
Omaha police stopped the masked
ball at Johnson's dance hall last
night and had more than 100 of the
dancers who had not viewed the
body, look at it in an effort to find
some one who recalled seeing the
girl in life.
Cecil Stricklett of Blair, Neb.,
danced with the girl supposed to be
the murdered girl Saturday night,
November Is She told him she
would be at the dance in the same
hall last night She failed toappear
last night. Last nights dance was a
masked ball Everyone was made
unmask by the Omaha police and
every face scrutinized to see if the
girl had kept her promise.
Important Clue Found.
A third development was hurried
visit of Miss Ballard to Omaha DUR
ing the afternoon on report to her
that there were several persons. who
found it inconvenient to go to CAL
houn, but who might be able to iden-
tify the clothing of the girl.
The fourth development is re-
garded as the most important. if the
public view of the body in Omaha
today fails to bring Identification.
This is an investigation of a clue
discovered yesterday that is ex-
pected to lead to the identity of the
girl Monday, or at least to give the
first definite facts regarding her
death.
Girl Not Recognized.
All efforts failed yesterday to
identify the murdered girl.
The report that she was Miss
Helen Lovelace, former counter girl
at the Hotel Rome, fell down at arr
early hour. ..,
The two girls who had claimed
to recognize her from a photograph.
Miss Catherine Foley, cashier of the
Hotel Rome, and Miss Edna White,
cigar girl at the Carlton hotel. were
taken to the morgue at Calhoun
during the afternoon. and immedi-
ately ON viewing the body said that
they had been misled by the photo
aud that it was not Miss Love1ace.
In the meantime, it had been
learned that the Lovelace girl, who
has been absent from the hotel for
some time. had been married to J,
L. Harmon. travelling auditor N
the Union Pacific railroad. A tele-
gram was sent to Mr.. Harmon az
Cheyenne, and shortly after the re-
turn of the two girls from their
fruitless trip to Calhoun a telegram
was received from Mr.. Harmon as
follows:
Message from Cheyenne.
]. ]. Stirling. chief auditor Union
Pacific, Omaha.
Mrs. Harmon in Cheyenne with
me. Cannot be confused with af-
fair mentioned.-J. L. Harmon.
Previous to the receipt of this
telegram, thus positively exploding
the Lovelace identification, it had
been found that Mr.. Hannon
claimed that he and his wife had
been aboard the train held up by
the bandit, Carlisle.
The new clue, it is said, relates
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