Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-15
BAKER DEATH SPOT |
IS BELIEVED FIXED.
Keys of Murder Auto Are
Found-TWo Men Are
Questioned.
Continued From First Page.)

(Contlnued from First Page.)
affairs. This understanding, It was
said. had never been violated, and be.
cause Of 1t the Investigators believe
Miss Sperry and Miss Skinner may not
have told certain things they had
observed In connection with their slain
comrade.
Determined to find q solution to the
crime, Inspector william s. Shelby,
chief Of detectives, ordered the entire
homicide squad to work on the case.
Lieut.. Kelly, with the assistance Of two
Department Of Justice agents, % fol.
lowing the so-called material eyi.
dence," which the authorities have In
their possession, while other members
Of the squad are gathering up the loose
ends.
Pin Hopes on Letters.
Every scintilla Of information, which
appears to have a bearing on the case
Is being run down with the result that
the officers have made q number Of I'M
productive Investigations. The authori-
ties, however, feel that the correspond
ence and q small collection Of love
letters, may ultimately yield the slayer
Of Miss Baker.
So thorough is the investigation be-
ing conducted that potential suicide
jected to more than the usual check
up. the authorities believing that there
may have been some connection be-
tween the man who threatened to end
his life and the Baker murder case.
| Another report that man had been
seen in Washington wearing q blood
stained shirt, also led to q careful in
partment of Justice agents and Cloth
| to an apartment in the fashionable
| Dupont Circle section. The man proved
conclusively, however, that the blood
stains on his shirt were caused by an
automobile accident several days ago.
Despite the myriad Of tangible leads
| upon which the investigators have had
| to work, the actual motive for the
crime has not yet been definitely de-
termined. The authorities, however, are
certain they nave definitely punctured
the theory that Miss Baker was ASSAULT
| ed and shot on Alexandria avenue, on
| the outskirts of RoSslyn, and her body
carried from there to the culvert near
Sheridan gate to Arlington Cemetery.
This theory was based on stories told
| by Mrs. B. L. Collins, who lives at the
corner of Alexandria avenue and Abe
marie street, to the effect that she had
heard the screams Of q woman Friday
night-the night Miss Baker was muir
dered-and had observed a woman leap
| from a parked car and run across the
| front lawn Of house at 1916 Alexan-
dria avenue. The police definitely cor
roborated Mrs. Collins story, but at the
same time learned that the girl who
screamed and jumped from the machine
was not Miss Baker.
The investigation of this angle OF the
case has produced the girl who did the
screaming, young Washington woman
| who had gone riding into the lonely
sections of Virginia and was ordered to
walk home. According to her story she
and another girl friend were picked up
in Washington by two stronge men VINO
drove across Key Bridge and over some
Of Arlington County'S back roads, hnal-
" parking in the vicinity Of the Collins
home Here the men got fresh the
] investigators were told, and when the
girls resented their unwelcome atten-
tons they were told to get out OF the
machine, which they did. One OF the
men, however, whom the girl said, had
been drinking, followed her ana the
other girl for short distance ana
grabbed her in an effort to force her
back into the machine and she
screamed and ran across the lawn Of
| the house at 1916 Alexandria avenue.
Passing MOtorist Attracted.
The screams attracted a passing mo-
! torist, according to the girls story, ana
when he approached the two men VINO
had taken them into Virginia they
| drove away. This man told the girls
he would take them back into Wash
ington, but did not want to be seen
picking up strange women, since ne
was married, and suggested that they
walk to q corner and that he would re-
turn and get them.
When the man returned, however, he
| found only one Of the girls waiting on
| the designated corner. He learned the
machine which brought the two girls
! into Virginia had returned IN his ABB
sence and the other girl had got back
| into the car and went of with the two
men. The accommodating motorist
| then brought the other girl into George
town and left her. The police believe
the story.
Robbery Theory Abandoned.
One of the major questions puzzling
the investigators is the motive for the
| crime. The robbery theory has been
| completely abandoned, and 80 has the
theory that Miss Baker may have been
| held I'D by q stranger either where
her machine was parked at Seventeenth
| and B streets or en- route to her home
| in Lyon Park and forced, at the point
| Of q gun, to secluded spot in Airing
| ton County.
The murder, in the opinion Of the
oficials, was committed by some one
| whom Miss Baker had trusted implicitly
and in whom she held no fear. For
this reason, they believe, she accom-
| panied her slayer on the fatal ride into
Arlington County, and when she re-
| sented his amorous advances, he choked
her into inscnSibility and subsequently
killed her to seal forever her lips as
to his act.
This theory, according to the police,
Is supported by the fact that a stranger
| could not have been waiting in Miss
| Bakers car, parked at Seventeenth and
| B streets, as she always kept the doors
locked. And even had an unknown
man Jumped into the machine when
she opened the doors she probably
| would have made an outcry which
would have attracted the attention of
| scores of persons who we're watching .
base ball game on the Monument
Grounds, in the vicinity Of the parked
car. The police do not doubt the re.
| ports that q man and woman were
seen in a car answering the description
| of Miss Bakers, perhaps having dis
pute, but they point out the argument
was not violent enough to attract the
attention Of persons on the Monument
Grounds nearby.
The police are certain that Miss Baker
did not return home Friday before she
was murdered, thus eliminating the pos
sibility that she may have been held up
en- route to Lyon Park or while returning
to washington. They have not yet de-
termined, however, whether the gun
Il 4 H. -