BROKE HIS VICTIM'S NECK.

Mrs. Ed Shirley Was Attacked and Killed While Her Husband and Sons Were Away on an Errand, Slayer Locked House and Fled.

The Gallatin Democrat Gallatin Mo. Thu Sep 21 1911 page 1

(Trenton-Republican-Tribune)

Her body was unbruised, but her neck broken, the body of Mrs. Ed. Shirley was found Sunday afternoon by her husband in an upstairs chamber of the Shirley home, seven miles north of Melbourne. Death was apparently the result of an encounter with some murderous fiend who had entered the house and attacked her while her husband was absent.

Mr. Shirley and his two sons left the home Sunday morning to go to a relative's for some peaches. They left Mrs. Shirley and her two and a half year old daughter alone. That afternoon about 2 o'clock the father and boys returned.

Every door in the house was locked. Every window was fastened save one. The little girl was locked in and too small to open the door, so one of the boys climbed through the unfastened window and turned the key.

Upstairs in a room where Mrs. Shirley had evidently gone for a nap, the chamber door was locked. Inside the room were signs of a fierce struggle and on the bed was the body of the murdered woman. Save for some blue marks on the wrist where he assailant grasped her, there were no traces of a fight on her person. A broken neck was sufficient to show that her end had been violent.

About the room on Mrs. Shirley's clothing and on the sill of the window out of which the murderer had clambered were spots of blood, mute evidence that the slaying had not been effected except at the cost of some injury to the murderer.

An inquest was held Monday, and a coroner's jury returned a verdict finding that Mrs. Shirley had come to her death at the hands of a person unknown.

The little daughter was too small to understand what had been in progress. When her father and brothers came home, Sunday afternoon she gave her version of the tragedy when she said, "Big fat man come and fight mamma and mamma fight him. Mamma asleep now." pointing to the locked bedroom door.

No arrests have been made. Officers and neighbors feel that the crime was the work of a home talent. The Shirley home was far off the main road, where tramps never came. No strangers had been see about the vicinity either before or after the murder. Residents who were acquainted with the Shirleys may have suspicions of the identity of the assailant, but they name no party.

Mrs. Shirley was about thirty years of age. She was formerly Miss Amanda Sovereighn, a half sister of Mrs. Hugh Nichols and Miss Kate Bushong, both of this county. No word has ever been heard against her character as a woman and a wife.

Efforts were made Monday to secure bloodhounds to take trail of the assailant, but it was impossible to get the dogs.