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


smudged T shirt champed down
on a short cigar and lunged from
shot to shot around the pool
table. He ended his run by
smashing the cue ball of the
table and onto the warped,
wooden floor.
YEAH" he said. standing off
from the table as an older, short,
swarthy man with a big nose
moved in over the table. Il 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 Loudoun County, Va,
creek June IA.
A younger boy watching the
game. a boy with a furtive glance,
said he knew one of the girls.
Past Chapter
Somewhat suddenly he came
out with this:
ME and Libby were going to
get married about three years
ago. Kid stuff. You know. Then
I went in the Navy. She came
up 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. I just got out
of the Maryland House of Cor
lrection 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 Eel
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.
ut had to be more than one
man to do that to two girls" said
a taxi driver who wore glasses.
ooh, I 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. IT
brought her into town a couple
Of times with her mother.
never seen her with no soldiers
A bit further up the street a
good-looking boy was working in
q 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. / know they went down to
the dances in Branchville at
the Fire House there Boy
that's a rough place.
Guys in Blue Ford
II saw them talking with two
guys in a blue Ford the Sunday
before they were missing. I was
iup at my girls house and they
were talking and laughing with
1.-TWO guys. never saw the two
lguys 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-
lgar remarks from time to time.
I'd say she was quiet, pleasant;
not the effervescent type"
POIiceman's View
1--WE never heard anything
really bad about either of the
two girls" a policeman said.
"Once I told the Venable girl to
Iget herself home. She was down
on Main street about / am. talk
ing to some soldiers"
From what can find out"
said another policeman, these
two girls never did anything you
might call bad. The kids tell me
they would never get in a car I'M
less they knew who was in there.
They must have known who was
driving that car"
About four miles down U, S. l
from Laurel, on a straight
stretch of road running parallel
to the B&O tracks, live the
Fellers. The "house" is half
cinder block. half old trailer, set
back from the road. There is a
yard, with a handsome cedar tree
and a broken chair. inclosed by
a wobbly picket fence.
The two girls were last seen
alive about 8:l5 pm. the night
of June l, as they got into a
blue Ford across the boulevard
from the Teller home. The car
went north, toward Laurel.
The Venables live Just north
Inf laurel in I0Ward County