The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-08-11
HIGH SCHOOL GIRL SLAIN
In MIDNIGHT MYSTERY
CRIME; ESCORT WOUNDED
West Newton Student Dies
in Roadside Ditch: Youth
in Serious Condition.
MISTAKE, SAYS KILLER
City Man Held in Death
Case Declares He Was
Shooting at Bandits.

Her body torn by a shotgun
charge, a 17-year-old high school
girl died in a roadside ditch short
ly before midnight Wednesday, and
her 19-year-old escort is in city hos
pital today with a wound which is
expected to prove fatal.
Mistake in identity by a man
seeking revenge following holdup
apparently led to the Staying.
The dead girl is Miss Margaret
Byers of West Newton. Her escort
was Kenneth Perkins, 10, R. r. 10,
Box 610.
Herman Voight, R. R. 2, Box
419-F, fired the fatal shots. In a
statement to police, Voight declared
he acted in the belief that he was
attacking two men whom he said
robbed his wife and the wife of
Walter Thompson, Speedway City.
as they started to leave the Voight
home in the Thompson automobile.
Police said they found 300 quarts
OF beer and gallon of whisky in
the Voight home.
Besides Voight, police are holding
Maurice Cochran, 81, of 1910 West
Sixteenth street, identified as the
driver of an automobile said to have
been sighted near the scene of the
Staying. He was identified as one
OF two men who committed the rob-
berry preceding the tragedy.
Mrs. Thompson was released to-
day on her own recognizance.
Near Schroeder Crime Scene
The shooting occurred on the
High School road near West Tenth
street, about mile from the scene
OF the Staying of a stranger for
which Harold Herbert Schroeder is
serving prison term.
Perkins said he and Miss Bvers
went to Brownsburg in his automo-
bile early Wednesday night, leaving
there about $50 and going to Broad
Ripple park. Later they went to
his home three miles east of Cler-
mont, leaving about 10:45 for the
ByerS home.
At the point where the shooting
TOOK place, Perkins says, two men
armed with revolvers leaped from
a parked automobile to the running
board of his car. They forced him
to stop, commanding, "Stick EN-
up" He and Miss Byers were forced
to alight from the gar
Fires With Shotgun
Before the two men could make
another move, third man armed
with a shotgun appeared from a
field and fired twice, Perkins as
Serts, and he and Miss Byers fell
into a ditch at the side of the road.
The third man was Veight.
Statement Of Voight is that he
and his wife, their two children, Is
months and 3 year old; Walter
thompson and his wife Frances.
entered the Thompson car about IL
to go to the summer cottage of the
at Freeport.
AS the car was started, two Young
men armed with revolvers sprane
from weed patch and ordered the
families from the car. Voight saws
his wife was robbed of $26, and that
sou was taken from Mrs. Thompson.
Starts After Robbers
Voight says that, after the rob-
bers left, he obtained a shotgun and
went in search of them.
He relates that on seeing two men
near the Perkins automobile. he
hred twice. He asserts he was NOT
acquainted with the youth or the
Byers girl.
1Tlree persons at the Mt. Auburn
kennels, short distance from the
Staying scene, told police that thew
heard shooting after an autounobile
SAID TO have been driven by Cochran
stopped in front Of the place and .
girl alighted, telling the driver She
would return soon. Within a few
the car reappeared and the
girl was picked up.
Delay in Investigation.
investigation of the case was
,SaF1eo after considerable delav
once OF Sheriff Charles Sumner
'ecelVed a report Of an accident At
lis, but no deputy was avaiIab1e
% send. 1'''lOie
second report, advising of a shoot
ng' was received at 12:44 this morn
ng. Following the first renort
however, police took I'D the case
Vhen advised that deputy sheriff
vas not available.
Volgnt and his brother Ernest.
., Oh tne same address, were ar
ested March II, following a fight
Ernest was given suspension of
j fine and thirty-day Jail term ON
'harGse Of assault and battery. and
harges of vagrancy against him
elf and his brother were dismissed