Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-11-25
Murder Victim Not Mabel
Fitzsimmons - Correspond
ent of The Bee Finds Her at
Delta, Co|o., With Husband
LINCOLN GIRLS FAIL TO
RECOGNIZE THE BODY
Omaha Woman Believes Un-
fortunate Girl Is Her Sister
May Also Be Ruby RIPLEY
Of RjvervieW Park Home.

Although approximately 500 per-
sons viewed the body of the Ridge
road victim last night in the John
A. Gentleman mortuary, 34ll Far
nam street, nothing was secured
that would lead to solution of the
mystery that has attracted the in
terest Of the whole middle west.
The belief of I. w. Duffield, 1918
Pleasant street. Council Bluffs. that
the corpse was that of one of his
daughters, was disproved last night
when two other daughters of Duf-
field. who came in from Lincoln at
7:45, said positively on seeing the
dead woman that she did not re-
semble their sister.
May Be Rippley Girl.
]. L. Sexton, superintendent of
the Riverview Park detention home,
said he believed the murdered girl
to be Ruby Ripley who formerly
was an inmate at the Riverview in
stitution. Sexton could go no farther
to prove his belief other than to say
the corpse closely resembled Miss
Ripley.
William Redmond of Auburn,
Neb., said he was morally certain
that the corpse was that of his
Della. q years old. who
left her home in Auburn last June
and had not been heard Of since.
Redmond and a nurse, who had
reared Della, viewed the body to-
gether last night. They identified
a vaccination mark on the dead
girl, and an operation scar on her
foot.
"Her features are certainly those
of my daughter" said Redmond.
"That break in her nose | believe
was caused when the crime was
committed or when she was thrown
into that gully and not before that
Undertaken Gentleman was
about to accept Redmond's identi-
fcation when a telephone call from
Auburn advised Redmond that his
daughter, Della, had just been loca-
ted. She is employed by DR.. pulver
in Omaha and is alive and well the
message said.
Suspect Burning Clothes.
Two men forced G. w. Tidwell,
fireman at the Henderson hot
houses, 4225 South Twenty-hfth
street, early yesterday morning at
the point of gun to burn a pack
age they brought to him. Surmises
that the package contained clothes
that the dead girl might have worn
were plentiful last night.
Seven persons identified the body
Sunday night as Mrs. Mabel Fitz-
simmons. wife of A. L. Fitzsim-
mons. local live stock merchant.
Mrs. Geneva Harold $40 North
Fifteenth street, wept bitterly over
the body later, and declared it to
be that of her sister. Clara Fleming,
who, she said, disappeared from her
home in Kansas City FIVE years ago.
Mrs. Harold declared her sister had
been married and divorced.
Relatives of the Fleming girl
thought she was kidnapped when she
disappeared.
A message received by The Bee
yesterday morning signed ]. w.
Crouch, father of Mrs. Fitzsim-
mons, says Mr.. and Mrs. Fitzsim-
mons arrived at his home in Delta,
Colo, last Thursday.
Bee Correspondent Wires.
Following receipt of the telegram
from Mr.. Crouch, The Bee instruct
ed its correspondent at Delta to
get a personal interview with Mrs.
Fitzsimmons, and later in the day
received the following answer:
Delta, Colo, Nov. 24.-(Special.) J
Just bad Mrs. Mabel Fitzsimmons,
her mother, father and her husband
in my Office. Mrs. Fitzsimmons ar
rived here last Thursday afternoon
in company with her husband for a
visit. She says she has sister,
Mrs. May Mowry, Harvard hotel
and brother-in- who works at
Fontenelle barber shop.-Frank X.
Stearns.
To Fix County Line.
Special Investigator Michael
Dempsey of the county attorneys
Continued on Page Two, Column One.)