The Washington times., 1922-11-05


object of their quest.
While they were busly engaged in these
discoveries, Mrs. Brenn, unmindful Of
their activities, had journeyed to town to
purchase mourning apparel. While absent
the detectives obtained access to her small
cottage, where they found the clothes had
been neatly packed in suit cases, giving
them the idea that she was ready for
quick getaway. Letters addressed to her
from Germany indicated that she had
written across the water about contem-
plated trip to her former home. These
give the police the idea that Brenn still is
livng-that his insurance policies were
probably what he depended upon to sup
ply the necessary cash to make the trip.
But the apparent weakness of this mo-
tive was so evident that the police asked
each other in a conference, "Why would
a man who wanted to collect money on
his death by substituting another body as
his own take the corpse of woman"
To this objection the reply was made
that Miss Schneider's grave was unmarked
by stone, and consequently it would be
quite impossible for ghoul to know any
thing about the identity of the body that
lav within it, unless he were present at
the burial, which did not seem reasonable.
The one particular consideration, they
argued, that would appeal to a body
snatcher was the newness of the grave
which made it possible to easily dig up
again whatever body it contained. The
grave robber, they concluded, had un-
doubtedly gone over the cemetery
previous to his raid and noticing that the
newly made mound was much higher than
the surrounding level of the ground had
marked it for the scene of his operation.
The police stress the belief it was one
man job, because they found fingerprints
at only one end of the casket.
The deduction was made that if more
than one person had raised the casket
from the grave, fingerprints would be
found at both ends. But the appearance
of the casket clearly showed that it had
been raised up on its end before being
dragged from the grave.
AS the bottom of the grave was not
more than six feet down and the casket
and box enclosing it about two and one
half feet high, not more than four feet
of earth lay between the box and the
surface. A strong man, according to the
police reasoning, during the course of
an evening, could easily reopen such
a new grave, up-end the casket, drag it
from the opening and seize the body.
And the weight of the casket containing
the body was not more than 225 pounds
not a difficult task for a man of
Brenn's more than six foot stature.
But the manner in which the grave was
dug is one of the remarkable features of
the robbery.
From the quality of the workmanship
displayed, whoever opened that grave was
a first-class shovel wielder and apparently
dug as though there was not the slightest
need of hurrying the completion of the
task. This appears all the more remark
able in light of the dogs continuous bark
ing and the close watch that is usually
kept over the graveyard at night by the
sexton, and even by the neighboring home
steaders, some of whom lived but a COM
paratively short distance away.
Notwithstanding this imminent chance
of exposure the shovel marks clearly indi-
Gated that the grave was carefully opened
along the very same lines that the original
grave diggers made when it first received
the body. When the job was completed
it was discovered that in spite of the lack
of light the sides of the grave were as
clearly defined as on the first day it was
made.
The single feature that showed some
fear of exposure was indicated by the
scattered way in which the top soil was
thrown about. Everything else was spick
and span.
The speed with which il is acknowl-
edged the grave was dug and the hole An
ished in an expert manner, seems to show
that more than one man had a. hand in the
body snatching, but the police are not fol-
lowing this theory, as they seem to be
convinced that the robber had no COM
panion.
Why the casket had been filched from
the grave and not returned and the grave
refilled to conceal the crime, was laid to
the barking of Mr.. Heidmann's dog. The
police believe that it was unquestionably
the original intention Of the grave robber
to cover up his tracks, but becoming
panicstricken as the dog continued to
bark and he saw Mr.. Heidmann's iashlight
shining through the shadows Of the
cemetery, he concluded to do the Job
as quickly as possible and to get out Of
Ii H. - -