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| April 10, 1954 Denver Post, Girl Murder Victim Still Unnamed, by Leonard Larsen Boulder county sheriffs Saturday issued a statewide appeal for aid in locating a blood-drenched murder scene, a murder weapon and clothing worn by a young girl whose nude and battered body was found Thursday near the quiet university town. The appeal came as officers exhausted every slender lead into the brutal slaying of the strawberry blond. The girl, about 17, was found by two University of Colorado freshmen on a spring vacation outing. The body had been pitched over an embankment 7 1/2 miles west of Boulder in Boulder canyon. Officers estimated she had been dead four to seven days before her body - partially eaten away by animals - was found. BODY STRIPPED An autopsy, according to Coroner George Howe, disclosed death was due to an extensive skull fracture, shock and exposure. The killer, Sheriff Art Everson said, had carefully stripped his victim of all clothing and jewelry in an obvious attempt to cloak her identity. In reconstructing the slaying, Everson and District Attorney Marc Smith Saturday theorized the girl was beaten to death, stripped and then carried to the creek bank where her body was found. Only one small spot of blood, about the size of a silver dollar, was found among the jagged rocks where the killer hurled his victim. That spot, the officers said, indicated the girl's heart was stopped when she was thrown into the creek bed. HASTE INDICATED Since the killer had disposed of the body in obious haste in leaving her near a heavily travelled highway, the officers theorized that the clothing and other personal effects might be found somewhere in the canyon or near the university city. Thursday, three "hot" leads to the identity of the victim failed as parents and relatives of girls reported missing viewed the grisly remains and failed to make positive identification. One "near positive" lead ended when Mrs. Robert D. Inman, wife of an assistant United States attorney for Colorado, located her wealthy niece in Akron, Ohio. Mrs. Inman earlier Friday said that the dead girl's body closely resembled Nancy Hawkins, 21, reported missing fro her Boulder rooming house since Saturday night. HAIR PINS ONLY CLUES Late Friday Boulder detectives and sheriff's officers completed a rock-by-rock search of the scene where the body was found. They failed to turn up any additional clues. Aside from the body itself the only clues now held by the officers are three bobby pins - the kind on sale in any drug store. The pins, Everson said, were found in the girl's thick reddish-blond hair. They had apparently been overlooked by the killer as he stripped all other identification from his victim. [Continued on Page 3, Column 7, with headline "Three Pins Only Clue in Slaying"] Three bobby pins - the kind worn by nearly every woman and girl - were combed from the hair of a young murder victim Saturday and remained as the only evidence left by a calculating killer. The pins themselves, according to the Boulder county officers, gave substance to their theory that the young strawberry blond victim was meticulous in her dress and physical appearance. Although ground rodents and mountain animals had eaten away much of the flesh around the girl's face and hands her well-cared-for fingernails and toenails added support to the theory that the Boulder canyon murder victim was wel-groomed, probably very pretty, before she was beaten to death and dumped down a rock-strewn creek embankment. SKULL SMASHED In life, according to Sheriff Art Everson and Coroner George Howe, themurder victim apparently was a delicate, a small extremely feminine girl. Only 5 feet 3 inches tall the girl, in life, probably weighed only 100 pounds - no match for the killer who smashed her skull and beat her slender body to a pulp, the officers said. Investigating officials Saturday pinned one hope of identification on the right thumb, the only part of both hands not totally eaten away by animals during the four to seven days the body rested in the Boulder canyon creekbed. ANALYSIS PLANNED The thumb, Everson said, would be processed chemically in the hope a print an be lifted and checked through for identity. Other leads to identification, the sheriff said, rested with persons, anywhere in the United States, who may know of a missing girl or persons in the state who may find the murder scene, murder weapon and dead girl's clothing. |
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