CHAPTER 4 The Crawlspace Contents
There was about a four foot drop to the ground in the crawlspace. Adam and Officer Green held O’Hara by the arms to lower him into the crawlspace.
Green backed out of the way and Adam handed a lamp to Mac. He shined the lamp toward the small skeleton lying in the dirt in the crawlspace.
He looked closely, making note of details, and speaking his observations so Ella could record what he said.
O’Hara tried to maneuver himself around to get a little more comfortable. He moved the lantern to the left rear of his body, twisting and turning to try to sit on the ground next to the skeleton.
“Oh no, holy crap.” O’Hara exclaimed. “Adam, there are more bodies under here.”
There was a collective gasp from the other officers and Ella.
“Oh my gosh, Mac, how many,” Ella asked.
“I can’t tell but I see at least two more.” O’Hara said slowly and emphatically.
After a few moments to regain his composure, O’Hara was ready to begin the arduous task of removing the victims, being careful to look for anything that could be evidence.
He began with the body of the small girl. Piece by piece, bone by bone, he removed the body. He slowed to carefully look at each bone as he removed it.
When he handed it out, Adam again examined each bone, and then Ella would catalog each piece and carefully place the bones together.
Looking closely at the skull of the small child and then at the neck, Mac spoke to Ella. “Log down, her neck is broken.” He picked up the skull to remove it from the crawlspace, and as he did he saw a piece of the skull was missing, indicating she had probably been struck with a blunt object.
The bones of the forearms, both right and left were also broken, as if she was defending herself.
Once the entire skeleton was removed, and before beginning to examine the additional bodies, O’Hara was handed a small scoop, a bucket, and a sieve.
He would then scrape up the soil strain it through the sieve and look for small pieces of evidence.
O’Hara was in the process of sifting the soil when Wally and Bobby returned.
Wally entered the room where Mac was working and knelt down on the floor to describe to him what they had found. He also told O’Hara about the hobos.
One officer was sent back out to the scene to assure no one entered the area. Two others went along to try to locate the hobos.
O’Hara was nearing completion of the painstaking process of sifting the soil. Bobby Pitt volunteered to enter the crawlspace to give Mac a break.
They now had four bodies, three found in the crawlspace and one in the ditch behind the old feed mill. The investigators were finding small pieces of evidence and had identified three crime scenes, but they still did not know if the crimes were all related.
O’Hara stepped out of the small room. “I've got to have some air. Have we got water too?” O’Hara asked.
“Yeah, and we have some sandwiches over here, Sarge.” Wally responded.
While O’Hara was getting water, Bobby had lowered himself into the crawlspace. Taking a look around he could see where O’Hara had marked the location of the child, and looking back over his left shoulder, he could see the other bodies.
Now the arduous task of removing the bodies, examining each body piece, each piece of evidence, and cataloging each and every one began.
O’Hara stood in the larger room viewing the evidence already recovered, when a small yellow dress drew his attention. He picked it up and looked at it carefully.
“That’s strange, Sarge.” Wally said.
“What’s that?” O’Hara mumbled as he laid the dress down and lit the cigar he had hanging from his mouth.
“No one has missed this child. And the others in the crawlspace, I guess no one missed them either.”
“Oh, they were missed.” O’Hara said. “We just have to find out who missed them. We do that, and we’ll be on our way to finding out who put them in the crawlspace.”
“Oh Sarge, one other thing. The dress we found at the other scene, it was yellow too. And the broach, it had a yellow stone in it.
O’Hara stepped back in the small room. “Bobby.” O’Hara called.
“Yeah Sarge.” Bobby called back.
“Bobby, can you tell if the bodies are male or female? And can you tell anything about the clothing they are wearing?” O’Hara questioned.
A few moments later Bobby called out, “Appears to be two females, Sarge. No clothing, yeah, wait. It looks like two dresses over to the side of the bodies.”
O’Hara took a deep breath, “What color, Bobby?” “It’s hard to tell under here, but I would say both are yellow.” Bobby said. “And Sarge, the hands and feet are missing from both bodies, and it appears they were also eviscerated.”
O’Hara shook his head, saying to himself, “so, the murders are related.”
The tarp holding the evidence and the remains of the child were moved to the other side of the room and were being packaged to take to the police lab to be examined further.
Pitt was handing parts of the next victim out to Adam. The second body removed, pit began to scratch through the sandy soil, uncovering something, he seemed to recognize.
“Wally, Wally,” He called. “look at this.”
Wally leaned over the opening as Pitt handed something out to him. It was a small handmade doll, missing one arm. Wally reached into his pocket and pulled out the missing arm.
The tedious work continued for the next five hours. It was 3 am. The patrol officers were relieved about midnight, but O’Hara, Jarrett, Pitt, and Ella had been there all day.
Leaving the officers to guard the now four scenes, the investigators left to get some rest, agreeing to return by 10am.
The investigators arrived back at the old mill crime scene around 10 am, as they had planned, and as soon as they arrived, O’Hara sent Officer Green to Dr. Baker’s residence.
Speaking to Green, O’Hara said, “I want to know want color of dress Inez was wearing the last time she was seen, and I want to know ASAP.”
“You got it Sarge.” Green replied, as he hurriedly left.
“The rest of you, same as yesterday, but we’ll be checking the scene where the body was found to start.” O’Hara instructed.
There was no real physical evidence at the scene, but the investigators concentrated on how the body got there. All agreed that O’Hara was right suspecting the body was thrown from the rail bed and probably from the handcar.
One question arose. Inez weighed about 145 pounds and it would be almost impossible for one person to throw the body far enough for it to land near the bottom of the ditch. The consensus of all was more than one person was involved.
The investigators now moved down to the hobo camp. O’Hara kept thinking that his first impression of the hobos was wrong. But that remained to be seen.
The hobo camp seemed to have been there for quite some time. There were several campfire spots. The investigators began to look around, and O’Hara began to stir the ashes in the campfire spot they were using the day before when he was at the camp.
O’Hara was thinking as he raked through the ashes. Myrt had remained near the fire the whole time he was there. Was that coincidence or was she trying to cover something. At the time it didn’t seem to be strange.
He stirred through the ashes until he was nearing the bottom of the pile and there he saw something. It was the remains of an old pair of glasses. O’Hara put them aside and continued to look through the ashes.
He found an earring. He found the other earring. “Wonder who this jewelry and glasses might have belonged to?” O’Hara said out loud.
“Got something Sarge?” Bobby asked.
“Couple of earrings and an old pair of glasses,” he replied.“ They could have belonged to anybody though.”
Bobby was scratching through the trash pile that looked to be the freshest.
About that time Officer Green returned, going straight to O’Hara. “Mac, the Doc said as far as he could remember, she was wearing a purple flowered dress with a white collar and white lapels down the front.”
“What!?” Mac said.
Green started to repeat himself, but O’Hara stopped him.
“That sounds like the dress Myrt was wearing.” O’Hara was ready to kick himself.
“Sarge, look over here.” Adam called. About head high in a tree was a large hunting knife, with the tip plunged through the bark.
“Holy crap,” Mac exclaimed. “I guess I’m just getting too old. I had the suspect’s right here, and let them slip away.”
“This knife has been recently sharpened,” Adam said. “The bigger portion of the blade still appears rusty, but the edge is real shiny. I don’t see any blood on it, Sarge.”
The investigators had scoured and searched and searched and scoured the hobo camp, until they were all satisfied all evidence was collected. Then they moved on down the spur track to the big oak tree next to the holding pen.
The Officer guarding the site was sitting, leaned against a tree. “Jeez, I didn’t think you guys were ever going to get here.” He said.
O’Hara and the other investigators stopped at the path that led down to the big oak. This crime scene was much larger than the others, so O’Hara split the investigators into teams of two.
Pitt went with O’Hara to the big oak and he showed O’Hara what they had found initially. The rope still hanging across the limb, the yellow stone broach, the old grave marker, and the dress.
The crime scene investigation being completed, all evidence and equipment was gathered together and placed on a handcar the Sheriff had gotten from the Cotton Belt Railroad Company. Everything was taken to the Mumford Street crossing where it was loaded onto a wagon to be taken to the Police Station. There the evidence techs would begin to examine all the items.
O’Hara and Ella left to get a good meal, go home, rest and sleep. Wally, Bobby, and Adam also left and headed over to the High Cotton Club. Shortly after their arrival at the club, O’Hara and Ella arrived and were seated with them.
A few moments later, Arthur Cain, the club manager came over to the table and greeted them. He explained that it was about an hour and a half before the entertainment would start, but when they explained their dilemma, Arthur told them they would be served as quickly as possible.
Receiving their round of drinks and placing their food order they all tried to relax a bit. Adam leaned way back in his seat and pretended to snore.
Looking toward the bar, O’Hara poked Ella and said, “Look, there’s BD bussing a table. BD, BD!” O’Hara called loudly.
“Mac, he’s working. He’s busy.” Ella chastised Mac. “Aw, it’s alright, I own part of this place. BD, BD!” Mac called again.
BD finally turned and looked. ”Misser Mac, Misser Mac,” BD said loudly. “Miss Edda, Miss Edda.” He was extremely excited. He was shaking and jumping up and down. “Me miss you, Me miss you.” He said with tears in his eyes. “We miss you too, BD.” Then came a round of hugs for everyone, Pitt. Jarrett, and Owens included.
O’Hara and Ella felt welcomed and comfortable to be back at the club.
BD left the table and practically ran to the back of the club. In a few minutes he returned with B-Roy and Scooter. The welcoming and greetings started all over again for BD, but it was great to be back at the club. Everything calmed back down and the group had a good meal and left the club.