Colorado researchers seek answers to 1870s murder mystery
Kansas.com
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Lawrence, Kansas (US):
It's one of the coldest of the cold case files.
Researchers from the University of Colorado were working against the clock Friday to gather clues that might solve an 1879 murder mystery.
Dennis Van Gerven was examining bone and teeth fragments exhumed from an unmarked grave in the Oak Hill Cemetery to determine whether they belong to John Hillmon or Frederick A. Walters.
That could solve the mystery of whether Hillmon faked his own death and murdered Walters for a $25,000 life insurance policy, or whether Sallie Hillmon was right in her claim that it was her husband all along.
Van Gerven reviewed the remains at a lab inside Fraser Hall at the University of Kansas. The bones must be returned to the cemetery on Sunday.
City spokeswoman Lisa Patterson said researchers removed teeth, pieces of skull, a bone from the left shoulder and a button. The items were removed after crews used a back hoe and hand tools to unearth the remains. The grave was unmarked, but cemetery records showed in which plot the burial took place.
"Their goal was to retrieve material to do a useful DNA sample. They were confident with the teeth that they could do a sample," Patterson said.
The sleuthing is the latest chapter in a mystery surrounding Hillmon's death. When he died, life insurance companies suspected Hillmon of fraud, alleging he and a companion killed Walters to collect on Hillmon's life insurance. Hillmon was 31 and Walters was 24 when the body was buried.
May 19, 2006
Kansas.com
________
Lawrence, Kansas (US):
It's one of the coldest of the cold case files.
Researchers from the University of Colorado were working against the clock Friday to gather clues that might solve an 1879 murder mystery.
Dennis Van Gerven was examining bone and teeth fragments exhumed from an unmarked grave in the Oak Hill Cemetery to determine whether they belong to John Hillmon or Frederick A. Walters.
That could solve the mystery of whether Hillmon faked his own death and murdered Walters for a $25,000 life insurance policy, or whether Sallie Hillmon was right in her claim that it was her husband all along.
Van Gerven reviewed the remains at a lab inside Fraser Hall at the University of Kansas. The bones must be returned to the cemetery on Sunday.
City spokeswoman Lisa Patterson said researchers removed teeth, pieces of skull, a bone from the left shoulder and a button. The items were removed after crews used a back hoe and hand tools to unearth the remains. The grave was unmarked, but cemetery records showed in which plot the burial took place.
"Their goal was to retrieve material to do a useful DNA sample. They were confident with the teeth that they could do a sample," Patterson said.
The sleuthing is the latest chapter in a mystery surrounding Hillmon's death. When he died, life insurance companies suspected Hillmon of fraud, alleging he and a companion killed Walters to collect on Hillmon's life insurance. Hillmon was 31 and Walters was 24 when the body was buried.
May 19, 2006
