Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-06-22
Laurel Wonders Why Killer Struck
Girls Who Were Lively but Good
BY JOHN M. McKELWAY

~ NAASh JOAAA6 AAAnAA .lkk
lsmudged T shirt champed down
ion short cigar and lunged from
lshot to shot around the pool
table. He ended his run by
smashing the cue ball off the
table and onto the warped,
wooden floor.
yeah" he said, standing of
from the table as an older, short,
Iswarthy man with a big nose
moved in over the table. II knew
THE girl. ! never heard nothing
bad about her." He went back to
the game.
He was talking about the
I"Venable girl"-Shelby Jean
IVenable, is, of North Laurel, Md,
found dead, nude and decom-
posed, in a Loudoun County, Va,
creek June IA.
A younger boy watching the
game, boy with a furtive glance,
said he knew one of the girls.
Past Chapter
| Somewhat suddenly he came
tout with this:
| Me and Libby were going to
Iget married about three years
ago. Kid stuff. You know. Then
II went in the Navy. She came
lup to see me at cambridge.
Then I went AWOL and got
caught. Then she didn't come
up no more. We never got
together no more. just got out
Iof the Maryland House of Cor
Irection . +. it was housebreak-
ing.
you couldn't say she was
wild. She got around but she
wasn't Wild" he added.
He was talking about the "Fel-
lers girl" = Mary Elizabeth
Fellers, 10, found in precisely the
same condition as the other girl,
but six days earlier and in a
Potomac River pool at the
Brunswick (Md) bridge, about
so miles from Laurel.
Up the street from the pool
room in the pleasant, small town
of Laurel, some taxi drivers sat
around waiting for business.
"This town." said one, isn't
dull, it's dead. :. unless the
horses are running"
Murder Comes Up
They got to talking about the
murder.
1T had to be more than one
man to do that to two girls" said
a taxi driver who wore glasses.
ooh, ] don't know" said an
other hacker. slip a mickey in a
coke, give it to a girl and any
thing can happen"
THAT Venable girl seemed. all
right to me-" another said. Il
brought her into town couple
of times with her mother. /
never seen her Withno soldiers"
/ A bit further up the street a
looking boy was working in
a drug store,
Shelby Venable used to come
in here a lot with her mother.
And I used to see her walking
down the street with that other
girl. I know they went down to
the dances in Branchville at
the Fire House there Boy
that's rough place.
Guys in Blue Ford
Il saw them talking with two
guys in a blue Ford the Sunday
before they were missing. I was
up at my girls house and they
were talking and laughing with
two guys. / never saw the two
IguyS before. I don't know If the
Ford had two doors or four doors.
I can't remember if they got in
the car"
Back from the main street, at
one of the typical white frame
houses of the town, a Mrs.
Edward Walker answered her
door. She was Shelby's music
teacher at Waterloo Junior High
School.
Shelby was a lovely little
lady," the candid, friendly
woman said. "She was innately
refined and always most Coop
erative. Never heard one vulgar
remark from her and hear vul-
gar remarks from time to time.
I'd say she was quiet, pleasant;
not the effervescent type"
1--WE never heard anything
really bad about either of the
two girls" a policeman said.
Once I told the Venable girl to
lpet herself homo She woe dou,1