Evening star., 1925-02-08
FIND BAbY'S BODY,
MOTHER IS HELD
UnWed Government Clerk
Admits She Planned to
Cremate Corpse.

| Discovery of a package containing
-he dead body of a baby girl at the
door of a furnace in the basement
of the Iriquois Apartments, 14lo NJ
| street, yesterday started police on
an investigation which disclosed the
| attempt of an unwed mother to veil
| her secret by cremating the child
| born Wednesday without attention of
| a physician and packed away in a
trunk for the four following days.
Miss Leona Holman. 81 years old.
government worker, who was ar
| rested pending the coroner's investi-
cation by Detective Weber. was at
Gallinger Hospital last night in a
serious nervous condition, while
Deputy Coroner Herbert E. Martyr
was performing an autopsy which re-
vealed strong indications that the
child had lived after birth
Examination Tomorrow.
Detention of Miss Holman by the
police depends finally on the decision
as to whether the child was born dead
or whether 1t was killed or allowed
to die from criminal negligence after
birth. This will not be decided finally
until after a microscopic eXamina ton
of a portion of the lung of the infant
into the lung. The decision will be
that the child had lived, and an in
quest held Otherwise, Miss Holman
will be released
w. f. Randolph, janitor at the
apartment house, set official wheels
turning by his report TO the real
estate agents of the discovery of the
infants body. The agents reported to
the police and Detective Weber was
assigned the case.
JanftOr Tells Story.
Randolph told him that Miss Hol-
man had entered the furnace room
yesterday with a request to be al
lowed to burn package in the fur
mace.
1T depends on what you want to
burn" Randolph replied
please don't ask so many ques-
tions. Miss Holman is quoted as tell
ing the janitor.
After Miss Holman left the base
ment Randolph noticed the package
on the floor, where it is believed 1t
dropped because it could not be
forced through tie fire door OF the
furnace, which had been filed with
fresh coal Randolph picked up the
package Wrapped in gauze, the
body of the baby was found. He then
made his report to the agents
Miss Holman was taken into Gus
today by Detective Weber. Asked
as to the facts surrounding birth of
the infant, she admitted being its
| mother: that she had no attendant
whatever at the-birth or since; and
| that she did not know whether or
not the child was alive at the time
1t was born. She said she had pack ed
the body in a trunk Wednesday in
which 1t remained until yesterday
She said. in addition, that she want
ed to prevent news of her plight from
becoming known and had feigned a
severe cold to account for her alb
sence from work for the past few
weeks.
Police turned the case over to
Coroner hewitt, who ordered an au-
topsy last night. DR.. Martyr, who
performed the autopsy, said that pre-
liminary tests did not prove con-
,clusively the baby girl had lived.
l'There were no marks of violence on
the body. There was a strong indica-
| tion, he reported, that the child might
have lived and died from bleeding
to death.
The question of the birth is to be
determined by microscopic evidence
Miss Holman, IL was said at the
hospital last night, was in a condi-
tion bordering on nervous hysteria
The ordeal has brought on a mental
condition also which evidences
tendency to melancholia