Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-05-25
HUNDREDS VIEW
COTTAGE WHERE the
BODY WAS FOUND

shore of Lake Maranacook where on
Saturday was found the slaughtered
body of Aida Hayward after five days
Of Investigation into one of the most
baffiingly mysterious crimes in the his
tory of Kennebec county, was all of
Saturday afternoon and Sunday the OBJ
jective Of hundreds of curious people
who, through the five days of uncer-
tainty concerning the young woman's
fate at the hands of the ruthless as
sailant, have followed each rumor,
false lead and plausible theory with
the closest of interest.
A Peaceful Spot
The spot where the little camp is To-
Gated is one of the most beautiful and
peaceful on all the nine-mile length
of Lake Maranacook. AS one stands
on the high shore between the clean
silvery and white trunks of the slen-
der birch trees and gazes westward
across the rippled surface of the lake,
it is difficult to realize that on that
scene amidst such a lavish display of
|
ing a crime could have been conceived
and executed.
A pail of dust hung heavily all of
yesterday over the height of land on
which. crosses the Stanley road from
the Augusta-Winthrop highway toward
Readfield. Hundreds of automobiles
bearing their human burdens of sight
seers traversed the undulating
stretches of the narrow roadway,
wended their way down across the
right of way to the titled strip of land
which lies just above the bit of wood
screening the cottages on Big Pine
Point.
Big Pine Point
The iron rails of the electric car line
curve around the location hardly Is
yards behind the row of half dozen
cottages of which the murder cot
tage" is the middle one. The white
sign bearing the legend big Pine
Point" is on great pine tree fairly in
the back dooryard of the green camp,
where the splendid young Winthrop
woman was foully done to death.
There is close and oppressive at
mosphere about the row of little sum-
mer camps on the point. The curtains
in most of them have been drawn
down, and the doors have that bolted
and barred appearance which bespeaks
an effort to exclude something alien
and certainly the events of the past
week carried out by the arch-fiend who
shot Mrs. Emma Towns, brutality as
saulted and murdered Aida Hayward
and fired the Hayward cottage in an
effort to destroy the evidences of his
crimes, are alien to the benign influ-
ences of the gem of natural and scenic
grandeur on the east shore Of Maran-
acook.
Warning Posted
The curiously inclined who visited
the spot Saturday afternoon and yes
terday found a penciled note on the
locked back door of the murder cot
tage" which showed that the place was
under the control of the authorities.
The warning written across the white
painted panel read as follows:
NOTICE
do no enter without permit from
sheriff or county attorney"
To the observant there were many
evidences of the lone effort at house
keeping by the abnormal-minded young
man who is now being sought far and
wide as the perpetrator of the terrible
series of crimes. Under the piazza
there was a little pile of dry kindling
wood, while in a common gunny sack
on an old painted table on the back
porch were sweet-scented pine cones to
start the newly-kindled fire quickly.
After the authorities had gathered up
the articles which they believe may
help to identify the culprit and connect
him with the dastardly deed, there re-
har cfai n1d
box on the back piazza an unopened
can of condensed milk and white
bowl containing smooth yellow butter.
Such is the scene where. just before
the sun began to slant its rays into
the pine and birch grove in front of
the green camp, on Saturday was
found the discriminating evidence,
which has branded the one responsible
as one of the most cold-blooded muir
derers in the history of Maine crimi-
nology.