Evening star., 1941-06-16
Missing Stenographer
Is Found Strangled;
Janitor Questioned
Body Of Slain Girl,
Discovered in Garage,
Identified by Fionee
Continued From First Page)

'front.' OF the car and was lying
parallel to the front wall.
There we're marks on the girls
throat which indicated that she
had been Strangled with a rope or
a cord, Coroner A. Magruder Mac
Donald said after examining the
body. He said he would be more
certain on this point following an
autopsy, which was scheduled this
afternoon. DR. Macdonald said he
believed the girl had been dead
more than eight hours.
Every stitch of clothing, except a
pair of brown and white sports shoes
and a pair of sport socks, had been
removed Police said there was no
doubt Miss Strieff had been GRIM
inally attacked.
All the clothing had been removed
from the garage and there was no
evidence of a struggle at the scene.
Police said there was possibility
the murder had been committed
elsewhere and the body had been
hidden in the garage.
What appeared to be bloodstalns
we're found outside the garage and
other stains were found in the alley
some distance away. Strengthening
the belief that the body had been
carried there.
The scene of the murder was some
distance from the girls home Po-
lice pointed out that she would not
have walked that far in the rain to
reach a store. There were many
oelicatessens open in the Eighteenth
street and Columbia road area
which was much closer to her apart
ment.
They believe that she must have
been forced or lured into an auto
mobile and transported to the ga
rage.
Garage Opens on Alley.
The garage opens on an alley,
which leads in from Seventeenth
street and police were told the doors
were always open The car had been
in the garage since Saturday after
noon and no one IN the household
had been near it until the maid
went out into the back yard this
morning
Dorothy CroiSsant, the professors
daughter, had been home all day
yesterday and all last night and had
heard no suspicious sounds. The
garage is separated from the house
by only about Is feet.
Police began questioning others in
the neighborhood to see if they had
heard screams or other unusual
noises in the alley.
Miss Strieff shared small apart
fnent at the Nineteenth street ad-
dress with Miss Christine Tankers-
ley.
The first report that Miss Strieff
had disappeared was made to De-
tective E S. Grayson of the Miss
ing Persons Bureau He talked
with Mr. LIE Blanc and Miss Tank
ersley several times later during the
evening and their concern for the
girl caused him to have uniformed
police from the 18th precinct sent
to the apartment to investigate.
Mr.. Grayson said that the police
looked through the basement of the
building and then knocked on the
door of the janitor's quarters. The
latter refused to admit them, the
police reported, unless they got
search warrant
Miss Strict vas wearing a blue
play suit and a dark raincoat with a
hood. The detective bureau broad
cast orders to all police TO search
in sheds, trash cans and elsewhere
for this clothing.
Miss Strief and Mr.. Leblanc had
been engaged for about three
months, but friends say that no
date had been set for the wedding
She had come to Washington about
eight months ago from her home in
Des MoineS, Iowa.
Mother Flying Here.
Miss Striefs mother had been
notified at Des Moines that her
daughter was missing. She boarded
a plane at noon today to come to
Washington to aid the search. not
knowing the girls body had been
found.
Accompanying Mrs. Strief on her
flight was the dead girls brother,
David Strief. 20, student at Iowa
State College. The father of the
girl, who had been an attorney and
prominent in politics, died about Is
years ago.
When she lived in Des Moines,
Miss Strieff had worked in the
Iowa State Banking Department
and had lived with her mother, who
is employed at the Federal Internal
Revenue branch there.
She had procured her license as
private pilot in November, 1899,
and had once been forced down dur
ing storm while attempting an
600-mile nonstop flight from Penn
sylvanla to Iowa.
Miss Strleff was appointed as a
Junior clerk-stenographer in the
War Department and had been pro-
NOTED in March to a better job in
the Office of the chief of ordnance.
Her immediate chief, 1t. Richard
J. Smith, was summoned to the
murder scene this morning to aid
IN the Identification.
Miss Strieff was the daughter of
David and Lucille Strieff of Des
Moines and had studied at Drake
University in 1885 and 1886 She
had been interested in flying and
had 95 hours in the air to her credit.
Mrs. Abramowitz Slain March 8.
She was a pretty girl and was
feet inches tall, weighed about
lit pounds. had brown eyes and
brown hair. She had won many
friends during her stay in Wash
1ngton.
Mr.. Leblanc is a clerk in the
Farm Credit Administration.
The murder of Mrs. Abramowitz,
the method of which so closely re-
sembles today's Staying, occurred on
March 8. She was found strangled
in her apartment at 1901 Sixteenth
street NV, and it was the verdict
-F II l y