23. Headless Baby Found In An Old Well Near Carlos City

Winchester Herald, January 22, 1919



  Sunday afternoon, January 19, the coroner, Dr. Markle, was called to the farm owned by Mrs. George W. Fox, one and a half miles north of Carlos City. In an old abandoned well in an unoccupied house there had been found what was supposed to be the mutilated body of a baby of unknown age. On examination there was nothing left but the trunk. The legs, arms and head have not been found. It was undoubtedly a portion of the body of a human being. This house had been unoccupied since the first of April, 1918. It is situated back from the road quite a little distance and was very seldom visited by the owners of the farm. On last Sunday, John A. Shoop of Richmond, father of Mrs. Fox, was visiting with the family, and he and George Fox, in a ramble over the place got a whiff of a skunk and thought they would find the hiding place of said animal as the fur at these times is a very valuable article. Thinking probably they would find some trace of it under the floor of the old house, they approached it and started an investigation. In fishing around they found the old well from the bottom of which they pulled the dead body of the baby, which Dr. Markle is certain had been there about three months. The well is fifteen feet deep and nearly full of water. There was no way, of course, of telling whether or not the baby had ever drawn a breath, what sex, or anything else about it except that there was enough of it left to tell it was a human being.
  The Doctor is certain that it was a plain case of murder by some unknown person who wished to get rid of a baby.