Evening star., 1939-03-19
Autopsy Is Ordered
On Body Of Soldier
Found Slain
Seek to Determine
Whether Sergeant Was
Murder Victim

Army surgeons at Walter Reed
Hospital were to perform an au-
topsy today upon the body of Sergt.
Edman F. Garrett, IS, of Ft. Wash
1ngton, Md, in an effort to de-
termine If he was murdered or run
down by a hit-and-run driver.
Police Chief Arthur w. Hepburn
OF the Prince Georges County force
said last night that both possibili-
ties were being investigated. Mean
while, an Army board of inquiry
was pressing an investigation into
circumstances of the mysterious
death, which occurred late Friday
night or early Saturday.
Residents living within a few
hundred feet of where the BODY was
found on Livingston road, Just be-
yond the District line In Prince
Georges County, early yesterday
said they saw two cars stop on the
highway shortly after midnight.
Saw Flash Light.
MIR. and Mrs. Lewis Johnson said
the cars stopped between midnight
and 1890 O'Clock. One car, Mrs.
johnson said, drove on a short dis
tance and turned around. throwing
Its headlights on a bank beside the
highway.
1t was at this point that the
BODY, with its skull laid open, was
found at daylight yesterday by a
motorist.
Mrs. johnson said she thought
there were at least two men in each
car, and that one man got out and
flashed light along the edge of
the highway. The witness said the
man with the fashlight called
something she did not understand
to the other men. He then returned
to his machine, she said, and both
cars left the scene.
Sergt. Garrett left the post about
$50 O'Clock Friday night on a "a
hour leave. He got off the bus, the
driver said, about 3 miles from
Fort Washington on the road to
Washington. At about 10 o'clock he
entered a store at Oxon Hill, Nd,
and purchased half pint of liquor
Tried to Thumb Ride.
AT the time he told an employe
OF the store he was broke" but
planned to go on down the high
way toward Washington to a cafe
and dance hall. The place was
about 2 miles away.
At 11:30 o'clock, Chief Hepburn
said, n1otorist saw Sergt. Garrett
on the highway trying to thumb"
ride toward Washington. He was
about midway between the store
and the cafe, it was said.
A preliminary examination of the
body by DR.. James I. Boyd of For
estville at an Upper Marlboro un-
dertaking parlor yesterday disclosed
that the soldiers head had been
split open, and that the only other
apparent injury was a dislocated
right knee.
The body lay on a gravel bank
beside the highway in a position
which indicated 1t had been placed
there after death, investigators said.
Circumstances seemed to indicate
the soldier had been killed else
where and taken to the spot In an
automobile.
Bloody Shoe Prints.
Prints made by a bloody shoe
were found on the highway leading
from q pool Of blood in the gravel
beside the body to tire prints in the
mud near the highway and about
80 feet distant.
Investigators were convinced that
q man went to see the body and
returned to his automobile at about
the time or soon after the soldiers
death, before the blood coagulated.
Police Chief Hepburn was being
assisted in the investigation by De-
tective John Dent of the Prince
Georges County force. Detective
Dent was informed yesterday after
noon that Sergt. Garrett, who was
known at the dance hall, was not
seen there Friday night.
Sergt. Garrett, an expert typist,
had been attached to Fort Wash
ington, on the Potomac River, in
Prince Georges County, since 1894.
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