Evening star., 1927-04-11
KOPPER'S CLOTHES
FOUND NEAR RIVER
Search Pressed for Missing
Man With Special DeteC-
tiveS Now on Case.

With murder. suicide and disappear
nnce because of amnesia or aphasia
recognized as within the realm of pos
sibility, the hunt for Capt. Frederick
Hopper, jr., who disappeared from his
machine shop at 1908 G street last
Tuesday, was still being prosecuted to
day by officials and friends, with har
bor precinct policemen dragging the
Potomac as close as they dared to
Great Falls and friends securing the
city of Washington for further clues
TO his whereabouts.
Despite the finding of his coat ana
overcoat yesterday on the banks OF
the Potomac just above Great rams
Md, with the attendant innuendo thar
the missing man may have plunged
into The river. the fact that at two dis'
tinct places in Washington he is be-
lieved to have been seen led friends TO
cling more strongly to the theory that
Cant. Kopper is still alive, wandering
somewhere around Washington pos
sibly in an unbalanced mental state as
the result of fall
Special Detectives Busy.
The Morgan Bradford Detective
Agency, which has been called INTO
the case, had called in special opera
rives today TO engage In the search
for the missing man, working on the
probability that he is still alive.
IT is recognized that only these
things generally can happen to- man
missing from his accustomed pursuits
as long as Hopper has been; one IS
that he died by accident, by his own
hand or by the hand of another; the
other is that he is alive. either IN
possession of his faculties or tenn
porarily deranged.
Against Suicide Theory.
The fact that Capt. Hopper recently
has so increased his personal assets IN
financial and business lines as to make
him even more independent than ne
had previously been and the fact that
mis- nature has led friends to believe
that he abhorred the thought OF sui
eide are cited. together with the fact
that he attempted to telephone
friends after ditching his automobile
TUESDAY night on Conduit road, with
. a fiat tire, as being against the theory
: of suicide.
The fact that there was no sign of
a struggle on the banks of the Po-
tomac. where his clothes were found,
and that neither c. L. Sullivan, Jr., OF
Great Falls, Nd, who is confident ne
saw him in his automobile Tuesday
night. nor other persons that nighI
noticed any one in company with NM
are cited as pointing strongly against
murder.
Mystery Is Deeper.
Developments yesterday served only
TO deepen the mystery.
First came the discovery OF the coat
and overcoat of Capt. Hopper on the
banks of the Potomac just above the
point at Great Falls where the water
flows into the conduit of the local sup
plv system. The coats were neatly
folded and lying on the grass.
William F. Franklin, the adJutaht
of Costello Post. who had been inter
ested in the search. said he passed the
very spot where the clothes were found
during fridays quest and declared
the coat and overcoat were not there
Friday.
Footprints and the marks of an ap-
narent fall down a terrace in front OF
the home of Robert jenkins, about
500 yards from the river side, where
the hat of Capt. Hopper had previously
been discovered, were also found.
DR.. w. II. Merrill of the Medical
Science Building. Robert Emory and
two friends, who had launched a canoe
from the Identical spot saturday alter-
noon, said they saw the coats on the
bank at that time,
While dragging operations We're 60
ing forward in the river with Police
man Birkigt of the harbor precinct IN
reharge another incident developed.
Strange Call Received.
Miss Carolyn Capen, niece of the
missing man, who has been one of the
leaders in the search, said telephone
call had been received at her home
that a strange man answering kop-
per's description had been elected on
Friday afternoon from the restaurant
In Temporary Building No. I. at Eight
eenth and D streets.
This revived the theory that Capt.
Hopper was wandering in a daze
around the city, possibly suffering
from loss of memory from the fall
down the bank in front of the Jenkins
home.
This served to bear out the state
ment of L. M. Gawler of Wheaton, Md,
who said he saw Hopper on Connect
icut avenue and to have talked to him
on Thursday One of the significant
points about Gawler's statement had
been that the captain was wearing a
light coat instead of his dark coat and
a new hat, and that he was driving a
new automobile.
--a-