every once in a while something will catch my attention and just stick in my brain....and this so applies to The Amanda Shirley Murder.

One Bleak Midwinter Night Troy Taylor ...sadly, too much time had passed for us to ever be sure about what really happened. ..merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, such a thing could've happened to anyone.

d/o William N. & Zelda (UTTERBACK) SOVERN. 1st w/o Jasper Edmund 'Ed' SHIRLEY. Murdered.

A MURDERER BROKE HIS VICTIM'S NECK

Harrison County Woman Was Slain Sunday

Alone With Baby Daughter

Mrs. Ed Shirley was Attacked and Killed While Her Husband and Sons Were Away on an Errand - Slayer Locked House and Fled Her body 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 two 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 her 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.

in approx. 1909 when she was age 7, Evie Maxwell contracted polio and was paralyzed from the waist down.

Evie was born April 7, 1902.

in 1910, Tom & Gilly Maxwell buried their 1 and 2 year old sons in the same week on Oct. 3 and 8, died from Typhoid Fever.

to sum it up, the day that their neighborn Amanda Shirley was found, Tom & Gilly had 2 living children Evie, age 9 in a wheelchair, and Jim, age 6. And Gilly was pregnant with son John, who was born 3 months later on December 11. death was no stranger to that dirt road.

findagrave.com Amanda's mom Zelda

Zelda Jane Whitt Utterback.

born 29 September 1842 Harrison Co., MO

died 14 August 1927 age 84 Gilman City, MO

married #1 Mathew Nathan Bushong 29 Dec 1872 Harrison Co, MO. (no death date given here?)

married #2 William M. Sovern about 1883. he died 1891

married #3 John N. Utterback about 1907. he died 1920 of pancreatic cancer. he was the father of Bart Utterback, who married my Great Grandpa Tom Maxwell's sister.

Zelda had 8 children: 3 Bushong, 5 Sovern.

had more luck with a free trial sub to newspaperarchive.com. 1 hit in Chillicothe Constitution Oct 30 1911 page 3

NO IDICTIMENT FOR THE SHIRLEY MURDER

Trenton MO

The special grand jury empanelled by Judge Wananamker two weeks ago to investigate the murder of Mrs. Amanda Shirley was discharged by the court at Bethany last Saturday. The Harrison County inquisitors returned thirteen true bills, a majority of these indictments being against defendants charged with violating the local option law. They failed to find any evidence warranting the return of an indictment against any person for the murder of Mrs. Shirley. The searching investigation made by the grand jury and the fruitless results of the examination of a long line of witnesses strengthened the belief that this crime is to remain shrouded in mystery and the slayer to go unpunished.

had the bright idea to subscribe to the Harrison County newspaper digital version since I saw they had an 'archive' tab. I was thinking 1911.

nope. only recent papers. unless I'm too stupid to figure it out. looked up genealogy library hours: Tuesday and Thursday 1-5. Saturdays 2-4. 2307 Central, Bethany.

ok, in nearby Mitchell Cemetery, there is another Amanda Shirley. who died the same day. different spelling maiden name (but could be pronounced same???). 3 years older. our Amanda's husband was Jasper EDMOND Shirley. kinda strange, eh?

SHIRLEY Amanda (SOVEREIGN) 17 Sep 1911 30. w/o Edward SHIRLEY (Republican Times 20 Sep 1911)

Mitchell cemetery, four miles east of Gilman City, and one mile west of Melbourne