Evening star., 1932-11-19
AUTOPSY TO PROBE
H|T-RUN MYSTERY
Authorities Seek to Find if
Woman, 60, Was Struck by
One, Two or Three Cars.

An autopsy was to be performed to-
day on the body of Mrs Matilda King.
go, who was found lying fatally injured
in the rain-drenched street in the 1900
block of Massachusetts, avenue last
night, in an effort to determine whether
she was the victim of enc, two or three
hit-and run drivers.
Meanwhile, members Of the homicide
squad. under the direction of Detective
Sergt. George Darnall, acting chief,
were investigating several conflicting
stories of the manner in which the
woman met her death. Police of all
precincts are on the lookout for auto
mobiles that might have been involved
in the accident.
Legation Reports Crash.
The police began an inquiry into the
the case following receipt of a tele-
phone message from the Hungarian le-
cation, 1929 Massachusetts, avenue, in
forming them a woman had been
struck by car and requesting that an
ambulance be dispatched to the scene.
Douglas Griffin, who is connected
with the legation. told the police a
we'll dressed man, his hands and clothes
stained with blood, appeared at the
door of the diplomatic mansion and
asked permission to use the telephone.
explaining a woman had been hit by q
machine.
The stranger appeared highly nerv-
Gus, Griffin said, and after fumbling
with the telephone for few moments,
made his call and hurried from the
house
Griffin followed the man into the
street, he said, and watched him cross
to the other side of the thoroughfare,
then hasten to a point about half q
block from the legation. There, Griffin
said. the woman's body lay. crumpled
near the curb.
Sergt. Raymond Carroll, second pre-
cinct, who happened to be passing at
the time, helped carry the woman into
the legation, where she was pronounced
dead few minutes later by an Emer-
gency Hospital physician.
Caller Disappears.
In the meantime, the man who made
the telephone call had disappeared. Po-
lice began a search for him imme-
diately but no trace of him was found
n a.
Eleventh street. told police he turned
after hearing the woman scream and
saw two automobiles pass over her body.
He said he did not see the original ac-
cident, however. Police were unable to
determine whether the man who made
the telephone call was the driver of one
of the cars, but were inclined to believe
he was not.
Shortly after the homicide squad took
up the investigation a newspaper Office
reported receipt of telephone call from
a woman who claimed to have seen the
accident. Refusing to reveal her iden-
tity. she declared Mrs. King was struck
by one machine, then run over by an
other. The third automobile, she as
serted, began pursuing the others.
Hit on Alighting From Bus.
Mrs King, a cook in the home of
Mrs. Sherman Flint, 3041 w street. ap-
parently had just a'ighted from a bus
when she was hit. An overturned sign
post near the curb and tire marks along
the edge of the Sidewalk, ending in a
large bloodstain about 40 yards farther
on. gave some indication, police thought,
that the woman was not in the street
at the time she was struck.
In this event, police pointed out, the
first car may have mounted the curb
and hit Mrs. King. hurting her body
into the street, where it was run over
by the other machine or machines.
At the time she was struck Mrs. King
was on her way to the Flint home,
where she had been employed for the
past 10 days or so. Mrs. Flint said she
! knew virtually nothing about Mrs. King,
having engaged her through an en-
ployment agency.
So far as police could learn, Mrs.
King had only one living relative-a
sister. Mrs May Campbell, Portland, Me.