The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-02-04
HUNT MISSING
TERRE HAUTE
GIRL NEAR CITY
Coat, Believed That of Terre
Haute Child, Is Found
South of Here.
NEW CLEW is CHECKED
Driver of School Hack Dis
covers Garment in
Road.

Search for Edith Mae Dierdorf, 10,
West Terre Haute Qnd) child, miss
ing for a week, today turned to-
ward Bargersville, Ind, twelve miles
south of Indianapolis on the Three
Notch road, when it was learned
that a school hack driver had found
a coat, corresponding somewhat in
description to that worn by the lit
tie girl.
Police of Terre Haute have been
conducting the search for a week,
aided by posses sometimes number
ing as high as 1000 persons on the
theory that the child had been
seized by fiend.
Hubert Rivers, driver of a hack
for the Bargersyille township school,
found the coat in the left track of
the Whiteland road as he went east
between the Three Notch road and
the first road west with load of
children before school Friday morn
ing.
He turned the coat over to the
school principal and its discovery
did not become generally known
until this morning.
H. D. Cornelius, operator in the
indianapolis Gamewell system,
learned of the coat while visiting
his brother, Walter, near Bargers-
vile, Sunday. The fire department
employee telephoned police head
quarters here about the coat this
morning and city detectives were
despatched to Bargersville.
Coat Description TalIieS
Rivers told The Indianapolis
Times over long distance telephone
he thought the coat might have
been lost by some child on the
way to school and thought nothing
Of it. 1t could not have been in
the road long, he believed, because
it had not been ground down into
the road by passing traffic. He said
he shook some dust off of it when
he picked it up.
The BargersVille principal, A. G.
Baker, said he noticed a strong odor
about the coat when it came to him,
but he hardly thoughV it chloroform.
The hack driver said he noticed no
particular ordor. 1t was reported
there were blood spots on the in
SIDE lining, but both the principal
and the hack driver said they
noticed nothing of the sort.
Fred Dierdorff, informed through
The Times and the United Press of
the finding of the coat said the
description sounded much like that
of little Edith's coat. 1t was a
soft gray material with a brown fur
collar. The cuffs were of the same
material as the body.
Find Bloody Paper Sack
The child disappeared a week ago
Sunday. She had gone out to dis
tribute newspapers which she car
ried, on her way to Sunday school.
Last Tuesday the sack in which
the child carried papers was found
at Paxton, Ind, twenty-eight miles
south of Terre Haute. The inside
Of the sack was diScolored with a
Splotch of blood to which chung a
few hairs.
Police thought the sack might
have been thrown over the childs
head before she was silenced with
a blow from a blunt instrument.
If the coat turns out to be that
worn by the missing child it is
considered plausible by police here
that the kidnaper realizing his
dangerous position was working his
way eastward from Paxton or some
other point south of Terre Haute,
hiding out in the billy country.
The road on which the coat was
found, not being a state highway
would likely be the type of highway
on which the kidnaper would zig
gag to avoid discovery.
IF the coat is that of little Edith
a number of possibilities present
themselves to Indianapolis police.
Various Possibilities
The kidnapers may have been
holding the injured child prisoner
somewhere and decided to move her
far from the zone in which the
posses have been searching.
He may have killed her at the
start of the fight and have heSitatec
to dispose of the body until now, OF
he may have disposed of the body
and waited until he got to the COM
paratively lonely spot north of Bar
gersville before throwing the coal
out of his car by way of Kidding
himself of damaging evidence.
It was expected that if the In
dianapoliS detectives decided the
coat came near fitting the descrip-
ton of that worn by the missing
child that the garment would bt
taken to Terre Haute to be viewed
by the parents.
The child also wore black oxfcrds
Light plaid stockings and light
green aviator's cap.
Sheriff George L. Winkler anc
Police Chief Claude NJ Worley re-
garded the finding Of the coat as
such a good clew that they left
for Bargersville this afternoon
personally to investigate.