The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-08-10
Sheriff Ray and Aids at
Blank Wall in Search
for CIeWS.
CHILD 9 MONTHS OLD
Hospital Hand and Foot
Prints Being Checked
by Officials.

Batt1ed by an almost COM
plete absence of clews, Sher-
iff Otto Ray today turned to
science for a solution of the
High School-rd murder of an
unidentified g. months old
baby boy.
Hundreds of identifying baby
footprints. on record in Indianapolis
hospitals, were to be examined in
a desperate attempt to establish the
identity of the child whose weighted
body was discovered late yesterday
floating in a West Side gravel pit
Deputies we're to take prints from
the hands and feet of the murdered
baby. who had been strangled and
tossed into the stagnant water Of
the gravel pit after a heavy metal
weight had been fastened to his life
less body.
Sheriff Ray gave orders for q
search of the gravel pit today.
Two large indianapolis hospitals
keep no finger or footprint records
of new born babies. This may ham,
per the efforts to identify the muir
dered child.
Hospitals Keep Prints
At Methodist Hospital, hand and
foot prints are registered. st. Vim
cents Hospital keeps footprints Of
babies born there and Coleman
Hospital registers both foot and
finger prints Nc identifying prints
are kept at City Hospital and st.
Francis Hospital, police said.
Meanwhile deputies searched for
two automobiles seen near the gravel
pit.
Charles Tomlin, 1876 Biltmore-av
said he saw gray automobile,
thought by him to be a Chevrolet,
stop near the pit Monday night
while he was fishing.
Mr.. Tomlin told Sheriff Ray a
man alighted from the car, walked
to the waters edge near the spot
where the dead baby was found.
paused a moment and then sped
away.
Automobile Extension Handle
Investigators said the metal bar
which had been wired to the MUIR
dered baby's neck and ankles was
an extension jack handle for a
Chevrolet automobile.
An intensive search was being
made for the car when George Hud-
gins, r. R. 2, Box 410, said he drove
past the gravel pit early Tuesday
morning and saw there an automo-
bile, resembling that seen by Mr..
Tomlin. A man and woman, he
said, were seated in the car. The
woman, he said, was holding a
child.
Sheriff Ray announced he would
devote his entire time to solving
the mystery.
"A crime of this nature in which
a defenseless infant is brutally
strangled is the most fiendish of all
crimes and will be prosecuted merci-
lessly," he said
Saw Body Floating in Pit
The body was discovered by Will
bert Moore, 18, of 1901 N. Tibbs-av,
who was working in a nearby hay
field. He saw the child's body float
ing in the gravel pit as he drove
past. Deputy Sheriffs Reeves, Bre-
dell and Harritt investigated.
The only clews found by DR.. John
Salb, deputy coroner. were the torn
pieces of cloth tied around the
chlld's neck and waist; the extern
sion handle of the auto jack and a
handbill advertising West Side
neighborhood store.
The strip which had been used to
strangle the child was looped about
its neck and waist and, according to
DR.. Salh, appeared to be remnants
from mems underwear The strips,
DR.. Salb said, were oil stained, in
dicating they may have been used
as cleaning cloths by motoriSt or
automobile mechanic.
Child Fully Clothed
The child was fully clothed, eX-
cepting for shoes and stockings. All
Identification marks on the clothing
had been removed.
According to DR.. Salb the body Of
the child had been in water for at
least 70 hours.
The murder scene is a short dis
lance north of the scene of the
mysterious Schroeder torch murder
of five years ago. The charred body
Of man was found in the burned
wreckage Of the automobile owned
by Harold Herbert Schroeder.
Mysterious circumstances led to
an intensive investigation which
ended when Schroeder was arrested,
convicted of manslaughter and i'm
prisoned. He was accused Of killing
the unidentified victim in order 70
collect insurance policies.