Evening star., 1938-04-04
WOMEN'S SLAYERS
HUNTED IN BRUSH
Mother, Daughter Tortured,
Stripped and Beaten
to Death.
ly the Associated Press.


VAN HORN, Tex, April 4.-Peace
officers secured the sun baked West
Texas brush country today for killers
who tortured a socially prominent
California woman and her daughter,
clubbed them to death and left their
partially stripped bodies side by side
on the desert.
DR.. w. w. Waite. who performed an
autopsy on the bodies of Mrs Weston
g. Frome, As, and her 23-year-
old daughter, Nancy, reported each
knuckle of the girls right hand had
been burned by cigar or cigaret and
that there were four other burns on
the back of her hand.
An inquest verdict read: Death at
the hands of a person or persons un-
known as the result of being beaten
with a blunt instrument
A searching party came upon the
womens bodies yesterday three days
after theirs abandoned automobile was
found near Balmorhea, on the San
Antonio highway east of here.
Draped With Blanket.
Draped with a light blanket and
scuffed over with dust. the bodies were
found lying face down in clearing
near the mesquite-covered foothills of
the Davis Mountains, miles east of
here, about half mile south of the
road to Ell Paso.
Officers insisted they had not a
single clue, but they sent out alarms,
1t was known. for their fellows to watch
for a blue coupe, possibly containing
q man and woman.
Diamond Is Missing.
Mrs. Frome still had on her glasses,
hosiery, shoes and an undergarment.
A wedding ring was on her finger and
solitaire was missing.
Nancy wore An undergarment, sport
shoes and socks The chain of q
French watch she carried about her
neck still dangled, but the watch had
been rougly jerked from it. She also
wore a wrist watch
The officers still hunted the clothing
which had been stripped from the
women and their luggage and other
articles taken from the car.
The mother and daughter left their
home at Berkeley, Calf, IL days ago,
bound for Paris Island. S. c., to visit
Nancy's sister, Mrs. Benjamin Nc
Maxim.
Husband Joined Search.
Mrs. Frome's husband, assistant
sales manager of the Atlas Powder Co.
at Berkeley. few here to Join the
search. Hardly had he arrived when
the bodies were found.
The last he had heard from the pair
was a letter early last week from El
Paso.
Thursday the women were seen on
the highway by a surveying crew.
Later Jim Milan, Van Horn truck
driver, recalled he had seen the
Prone car and a blue coupe pass him
east of here. A woman was driving
the coupe. and man and two women
were in the Frome machine.
q The cars passed him. turned around,
passed him again. and finally turned
or on country road. That was late
Wednesday afternoon
Mr.. Milan was among the searching
party that clambered over the scraggy
terrain and found the bodies.
Fear for the women was aroused
when their car was found, a few
hours after passing the surveying
crew
Officers theorized that:
The women stopped along the high
way with a blowout. Another machine
came by and they hailed it. The kill
lers-the officers indicated they be-
lieved more than one person was re-
sonsible-probably held up the women,
killed them and fed in the Frome
car
Mr.. Milan said he believed he could
Identify the blue coupe and the man
In the Frome car.