Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1919-07-21
GHOULS OPEN CRAVE
OF YOUNG Girl
Horrible Crime Near Fl. Thomas,
KY, Shrouded In ystery-.
Detectives At Work

"ofhihS III Cle silence OF SC. stephens
Cemetery, on the Alexandria pike,
one mile south of Fl. Thomas,
Ky, Thursday night dug up from q
freshly-made grave the body of Miss
Clara Fischer, the pretty fifteen-year
old daughter of Anton Fischer, COS
East Third street, Newport, KY. The
girl died last Monday following an op.
Grafton for appendicitis.
From the slender hands, which
crossed on her maiden breast clasping
q rosary and the stem Of white lily,
the ghouls stole the lily and carried
it away.
The body of the girl, as startling
evidence in the morning revealed, had
been removed from the coffin, placed
in a grassy nook sheltered BY tho
broken boughs of tree, and mis-.
treated. "-sa
The body, with it's shroud and bur.
ial clothing disheveled and torn, them
was thrown back into the coffin, tho
lid replaced and the grave left open.
This CHASTITY crime, with its weird
settings and the added mystery of the
visit to the graveyard earlier Thurs.
day night of a strange, black-robed.
woman, wearing peculiar triangular
black hat, who frightened the sexton,
was disclosed Saturday when it be
came known that many operatives OF
a Cincinnati private detective agency,
said to have been employed by the
Trustees Of st. Stephens's Cemetery
Association, have been running down.
scores of clews in an effort to solve
the mystery.
Members of Clara Fischer's family
were summoned and the box and cas-.
ket were lifted to the surface. Tho
lid of the casket, it was found, had
been loosely screwed back into place,
When the lid was opened, evidence
that the body of the young girl had
been removed from it Immediately be-.
came apparent The body was dis.
placed and pressed against one end
of the coffin. The hands one of which
still clutched rosary, were at her
sides. The white lily, which had
been placed in the other hand when
the hands were folded across her
breast, had disappeared.
burial dress was raised above tho
knees. Dirt stains were on the white
silk stockings. The girls hair was
disarranged.
One of her feet was incased in a
slipper. The other slipper was found
under the girls back in the coffin.
A large piece Of white cloth, which
had been bound around the body by
undertakers to hold it in position was
missing. Later it was found rolled up
in a sewer catch basin 80 feet away.
Every foot of space in the cemetery
was searched and the earth from tho
grave sifted for trace Of the lily which
had been in the girls hand, but it
could not be found.
Near the grave it was found two
boughs Of tree had been twisted anGl
broken, the branches sweeping the
ground, forming a canopy. The
grass beneath this improvised canopy
was found to be trampled and fiat.
tened.
This led investigators to believe the
body of the girl had been lifted from
the coffin, feet first, and then car
ried to the grassy shelter.
Tangled threads in the grewsomo
tragedy, operatives engaged to invest.
igate the amazing crime added To
the mysterious elements of the case a
gray automobile, seen near the GENE,
terry Thursday night, the presence Of
several men near the cemetery at the
time the mysterious woman in black
frightened away the sexton, and pin
taken from the shroud in which the
body was wrapped.
Plans to exhume the body a second
time to determine the extent of it's
rnistreatment at the hands Of ghouls
after according to the theory of de-
tectives, their female accomplice had
departed, are to be carried into eff
feet.
Frederick Blye, the sexton, yester-
day retold his story of how he was
frightened from the cemetery at 8
o'clock Thursday night by the sud
den appearance beside him of the
woman in black" when he was Dig
ging another grave, several hundred
yards from the grave. of Clara
Fischer. Wearing garb of mourn
ing and a curious hat, which remind
ed him of "the DEVILS cap and bells,"
ne says, sic .pTOleSScu uSI itiIC Niois
to be for the purpose of mourning o
"dead relative"
Blye, dropping his tools, left tho
cemetery in haste and returned the
following morning, to find the shovel,
its handle broken; the spade and the
pick, all the tools of the professional
gravediggers, lying besides the open
grave Of Clara Fischer
Other descriptions of the mysteri-
GUS woman, gained from persons who
saw her in the vicinity of the ceme-
terry \Thursday evening, tally with
those of the frightened sexton. Her
peculiar hat, it is said, was Of black
straw.
Among number Of persons who
have been questioned by detectives,
it was understood, was a man who, be-
cause of his physical deformities, is
said to have earned for him among q.
certain class Of acquaintances an un.
enviable nickname.
Detectives are investigating the
presence Of several men who, il Is said
were observed in the vicinity Of the
cemetery last Thursday night, and
these, added to the mystery ofthe gray
form clews on which tho
operatives are working in an effort ~
nnrevel the crime, A part Of the s