Evening Times Republican

Des Moines Detectives Believe They
Have Trace of Murderers of
Mabel Schofield.

Now Thought She Was Killed in
City and Then Taken to the
River.

Des Moines, Oct. 28.—The two men who placed the body of Mabel Schofield in the river just below the bath house at daylight Sunday morning, took the dead body there in a buggy. At 5 o'clock, on their way up West Second street, they stopped at Ridge street and had an altercation as to whether the right road led north or east. Their altercation attracted the attention of Mrs. R. N. Dean, who stood in the door of her home, two rods from where the buggy stood, and listened. The body of the dead girl was supported between the two men in the buggy. The largest man had his arm about it, but it had slipped partially down from the seat; the head was thrown back, and Mrs. Dean concluded the girl was sick or had fainted. After their altercation about the proper direction to go the men drove north. Monday evening when her husband returned from his work Mrs. Dean told him about the circumstances and said the girl in the buggy was either sick or fainting.

Last evening a reporter went with Dr. M. W. Garrity to the home of Mrs. Dean. Dr. Garrity has insisted for three days that he saw Mabel Schofield Saturday evening, between 8 and 9 o'clock, at the corner of Fourth and Locust streets, talking with two men. One of them was short—Dr. Garrity describes him as not over 5 feet 3 inches tall. The other was tall: both were young and smooth shaven. Mrs. Dean, after listening to this description, said it tallied with her observation of the two men in the buggy at 5 o'clock Sunday morning. But this is not all. Mrs. J. N. Thomas, at whose house Mabel lived yesterday gave a reporter a group picture of the high school graduating class of Mabel Schofield. There were six young ladies in the group. Mrs. Dean took the picture and held it under a light and said:

"I only saw the girl in the dim light, partly from the moon and partly of early morning. I cannot be certain, but I should say this is the girl who was in the buggy between the two men." And with this she placed her finger on the picture of Mabel Schofield.

Mrs. Dean, asked about the buggy in which the three persons sat, said it either had no top, or if it had one the top was down. The horse was not white: further than that she could not say. The party finally drove on north. Mrs. Dean, when asked whether the buggy had rubber or metallic tires, said she believed from the noise it made in passing over the crossings—the street there is not paved—that it was rubber tired.

Yesterday afternoon an investigation was made of the route by which such a buggy could have reached the river, after going north from Mrs. Dean's home. In an unfrequented place on the river bank, away from the roads, and where there were no other evidences of travel, the tracks of a rubber tired buggy were still to be seen. These were at such a point that, had the girl's body there been taken from the buggy and dragged to the river, it would have been dragged or carried through a thick growth of burrs and nettles, such as were found on the girl's clothing.

At 10 o'clock last evening Mrs. Dean entered a carriage with two reporters and was driven to the office of Coroner Ankeny on Grand avenue. Coroner Ankeny was absent, but the office was not locked. Mrs. Dean walked inside. The hat which was on Mabel Schofield's head when her body was found hung on the wall above the coroner's desk. It was taken down and handed to Mrs. Dean. It was a light felt military hat, with broad brim and high crown: the crown was crushed in by the band, bulging out again above the band. It is one of the type of "coal scuttle" hats so much affected in the last few months by young women.

Mrs. Dean took the hat in her hand, turned it over, shaped the broad brim in different ways, studying the various shapes thus produced, and then said:

"Yes, it was a hat of that style and pattern, I am sure. I can't say that it was this hat, of course, but I know it was one like this. As I saw it on the girl's head it was tipped or pushed back a little on her head: her head was also thrown back; the front of the brim was slightly pulled downward."