Evening star., 1950-12-25
; Skeletons Found
In 1895 in Vermont
Still Pose Mystery
By the Associated Press

MIDDLEBURY. VT, Dec. 25.-
The case of the Middlebury skele-
tons is one of Vermont's strangest
mysteries.
"a greater mystery than the
disappearance of Paula Welden,"
says Vermont State investigator
Almo B. Franzoni of the three
skeletons found IS years ago at
East Middlebury and never identi-
fed.
Miss Welden, of Stamford,
Conn.,. student at Bennington
College. vanished four years ago.
Four other persons who dis
appeared in the Bennington area
within the last five years have
not been found.
I'VE do not know that there
was any foul play in the dis
appearance of Miss Welden." Mr.
Franzoni said, "but this Middle
bury case was murder. There
were bullet holes through all three
skulls"
One of the skeletons was that
of a woman, about As or little
older. The others were of boy,
perhaps 16, and a girl, about 10.
Presumably they were a mother
and her children.
Found Beside Road.
They were persons Of apparent
wealth, but they seem to Eave
been persons nobody knew.
Investigation indicated the bod
les of the slain family lay beside
a little-used woods road in a
thinly populated section Of East
Middlebury during the deer-hunt-
ing season of 1882.
A hunter, raising his gun to
fire, missed his deer because just
then he detected "a terrible odor.'
He didn't investigate, dismissing
the smell as caused by dead
hedgehog"
Two and a half years later. on
May Is, 1885, Mrs. Fred Dague
and her daughter. Inez Perry. 18.
went picking spring flowers along
the family outlined cart track
amid thickly growing birch and
pine. Inez stumbled over some
thing that rolled. She screamed
It was a human skull.
n;eoorarv ConGrroaJ
The menfolk on the farm where
Mrs. Dague's husband worked
called her report "tomfoolery."
But that evening when chores
were done and supper was fin
ished they found the women were
right. Two skeletons lay side by
side. head to foot, and a third
across them at right angles-just
of the hillside trail.
There had been pine boughs
over them, and pine needles had
partly concealed them, along with
remnants of a decayed striped
awning, wooden blanket and old
automobile curtains. Hastily called
law officers found few buttons. no
buckles. no jewelry.
Police speculated the three had
been slain elsewhere, brought toI
the spot late at night when even
house lights were out. There were
houses not many hundreds of
yards distant. Late at night, the |
killer probably thought he was far
from all habitation.
Farmer Ward Clark, one of the
discoverers of the skeletons, re-
called that in May 1882. he had
repaired the road for a man who
owned woods camp and had
piled logs at the exact spot where
the bodies now were found. Some |
time later in the year after the
logs were removed, and before Ed
ward Munso went hunting in No
vember. the bodies were laid there,
without attempt at burial.
Anthropologists Called In.
Harvard Anthropologists Earn
est A. Hooton and George Wood
bury were called in by Vermont
authorities, along with Dean Le-
roy M. S. Miner of the Harvard
Dental School.
Here's what the scientists
learned: The three were probably
Jewish, or else Armenian, Syrian
or Turkish in racial origin, brun-
cites of short stature (the woman
was 5 feet D. They had some
what projecting upper front teeth,
prominent noses, narrow faces, re-
ceding chins. The three were in-
timately related in blood. probably
q mother and her two children.
All had the same hereditary mall
alignment of teeth and jaws.
Exceedingly skillful and costly
dental work, including tooth
Strengthening devices on the boy,
bespoke evident wealth. The
mothers teeth were mottled, as
though from drinking water that
contained fluorine.
A bullet from a .38 caliber auto
loading type pistol had crushed
through each skull. The mother,
right-handed, was not slayer
suicide. The position of her own
wound showed she had not ended
her own life.
Dentists Alerted.
Throughout the country den
lists were alerted and shown
charts and descriptions of the den
tai work. The FBI helped spread
the information. Dental conven-
tions in the United States and
Canada saw exhibits.
Some dentists offered tentative
information. Reports of missing
mother-child groups came from
many places. But no information
fitted the identity requirements OF.
those skulls and bones.
Perhaps the dentist who did the
work on the trio never heard of
the case. Perhaps he was dead.
Or perhaps, suggested Ortho-
dontiSt Charles A. SPAIN of New
York, the significant failure of