New Britain herald., 1930-03-26
Three Theories

Ole Petersen and Jan Nelson had a camp some forty miles back in the timber slopes from the little ham let of Fordham.
 They were not Iumbermen how ever, but trappers.
 The nearest lumber road for a wheeled vehicle was some ten miles from their camp. The rest of the distance was only a trail,
 For several winters these men had trapped up in that district and brought out fairly profitable quantity of pelts in the early spring.
 In the summer months they found the lowlands.
 Petersen was q man of fifty, wldower, and with few if any rela- tives, at least in this country.
 Nelson was twenty-five and un- married
 Last year the first week in Jan uary, the people in the hamlet of Fordham were surprised to see Jan Nelson put in an appearance, haul ing a fair quantity of pelts on a -.crudely made sled. He was questioned and explained distant state, where he was 10 meet a girl he had known for some time and marry her.
 Ole is all right, feeling fine" Jan declared. He has got the same quality Of pelts as 1 have-we shared alike. He'll have a lot more come spring, of course"
 Some thought it unusual for Jan to leave his partner up there. forty miles from nowhere" all alone.
 "Ole knew all about it." Jan pro- tested. He knew l was to marry Hulda this month. Hes all right, got plenty meal and pork and beans, plenty everything-g plenty fresh meat and some pig pickerel through the ice in the ponds. Ole don't care, except he tell me I'm a fool 10 mar ry," and Jan laughed as he told this.
 It wasn't until the following June that a party of fishermen, going up Snake River to Chain of Ponds, came across the body of Ole Petersen, or what was left of it.
 The sketch of the camp, made of logs, shows the conditions as the fishermen found them.
 The one door to the camp was closed, but not locked
 The axe leaned against a corner of the camp, and not near the stump chopping block and pile of wood, where chips showed the stove wood was cut up.
 There was ladder. the crude sort made of saplings, leaning against the side of the camp opposite the sone window in that side.
 ' Nearly under the ladder and be- tween it and the side of the house Petersen's body was found. The fishermen left one man on guard and went back to notify the authorities. Next day a deputy sher- itf and doctor arrived. The man on guard had put up his pup tent and slept out of doors.
 The doctor found that Petersen s skull had been crushed,
 Inside the camp they found the bunk made up. On the stove was a frying pan filled with a black sub stance which proved to be pork, fried to cinder. Some stale, green, mos sy-like stuff on the table proved to be the remnants of home made bread.
 fs Petersen's gun was hung up, fully loaded.
 There was also a stack of we'll cured pelts. baled. and some other belts that had spoiled because the process of curing had not been com- nleted.
 Jan Nelson did it," the deputy cheriff declared.
 The doctor didn't believe it,
 The fisherman, a former ncwspa- per reporter, who had remained on guard, agreed with the doctor on that, after he had learned the par ticulars about Nelson.
 But the newspaper man and the doctor each had a different theory.
 la all, there were three theories. We have told one-that Jan Nelson killed Petersen.
 What were the other two theories as to the cause Of the mans dcath'
 SOLUTION TO YESTERDAY
 BATTLE MYSTERY
 II