The battered, nude body of a murdered girl was found beside Boulder creek eight miles west of here Thursday night.

Believed to be between 17 and 20 years old, the blonde girl remained unidentified early this afternoon. Investigators had not a single clue to work on in attempting to trace the killer.

A pathologist who performed an autopsy said the girl definitely was alive, but probably unconscious, when she was thrown or rolled over an embankment from the Boulder cañon highway about 300 yards below the Boulder Falls parking area.

Sheriff Arthur T. Everson, Coroner George W Howe, Deputy Attorney Joseph J. Dolan, and Dr. Freburn L. James, Sanitarium pathologist, concluded the badly fractured victim was beaten before he was dumped out of an automobile, although, some of her broken bones could have resulted from the plunge down the embankment into jagged rocks.

DEAD 3 TO 7 DAYS
Howe and Dr. James said the girl might have been dead anywhere from three days to a week before she was found by two C.U. students on a mountain outing. The body, lying face up, could not have been seen by occupants of automobiles on the cañon road but it would have been plainly visible to anyone walking along the outer edge of the road and looking down to the creek. Beause there were so many hikers in the area last weekend, it seems likely the body was placed there Sunday night or later.

The coroner and doctor estimaged the girl's age at 17 to 20. She was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed about 100 pounds. Her hair would be called blonde although it might be described more accurately as a very light brown, perhaps with a slight red tinge. There were no fillings in her teeth. She has an appendectomy scar but the pathologist said there was no way to tell how old it is, except that the surgery occurred more than a month ago.

The color of the eyes is unknown because birds or animals had left the body in bad condition. For the sme reason, fingerprintes could not be obtained.

NUMEROUS FRACTURES
The post-mortem examination showed these fractures: skull behind the right ear, left jaw, left collarbone, first to fourth ribs on the left side, and a compound fracture of the left arm. Dr. James said these injuries were not caused by a sharp or pointed instrument. They could have been caused by a fist, but more likely by a blunt, broad weapon. Possibly some, but not all, may have resulted from the fall on the rocks.

Pending a laboratory analysis, it was not known whether the girl had been raped.

The University freshmen who discovered the body were Wayne Swanson and James Andes, both 19 and both living at 1719 Marine St. Swanson is from Batavia, Ill., and Andes from Mackinaw, Ill. Leaving their car in the parking lot near the trail to Boulder Falls, the students hiked around the area.

LOOKING FOR DRIFTWOOD
While walking back to the car to come home, the boys were looking for a piece of driftwood they had placed beside the stream with the idea of using it for a lamp base or other article. Swanson and Andes were walking on the south or outside edge of the road when they saw the body. That was about 6 p.m., still daylight.

Without going all the way to the body, the students drove to the courthouse and notified Sheriff Everson. After sending word to Coroner Howe, the sheriff left for the scene with Andes and Swanson, arriving about 7 p.m.

The body was at the foot of the a 45-degree slope, 29 feet from the edge of the water in the creek, now at a low level.

Coroner Howe said after the autopsy that the direct cause of death was shock and exposure. It appeared the skull fracture would not have been if the girl had had immediate treatment.

BEATEN BEFORE THROWN
Investigators said it looks definite that the girl was severaly bludgeoned before being rolled over the embankment.

Sheriff Everson, Coroner Howe, and Deputy District Attorney Joseph J. Dolan, who also participated in the investigation from the start, returned to the scene this morning with District Attorney M. E. H. Smith of Greeley, Deputy Horace B. Holmes, and Boulder Police Detectives Roy Hendricks, Roy Hill and Willard Spier.

They made an extensive search of the area but did not find the girl's clothes or any other clues.

The coroner said an inquest will be held, probably Monday morning.

What looked like a good clue to the girl's identity proved false this afternoon. A Boulder woman reported that her cousin, who lives on University Hill, had been gone since last Saturday. Later, however, this young woman was located in Akron, Ohio.

PUEBLO MOTHER CONCERNED
Mrs. Ben McDowell, of Pueblo, telephoned Sheriff Everson this morning and expressed the opinion the victim might be her daughter, missing since March 1. The McDowell girl, however, still has her appendix, unless it was removed after she left home. Nevertheless

Mrs. McDowell said she would come to Boulder this afternoon.
The mother of another missing Boulder girl also viewed the body but said definitely it is not that of her daughter.

District Attorney Smith urged anyone knowing of a missing girl, fitting or even approximating the description of the murder victim, to report the information immediately to the sheriff's office.

If and when the victim is identified, officers will have something to go on in efforts to solve the crime.

This was the fourth homicide in the Boulder vicinity in less than seven years. University Coed Theresa Catherine Foster was slain on Nov. 9, 1947; University Student Roy G. Spore Jr. on June 9, 1949; and Mrs. John Rice in March 1950. The Rice and Foster slayings were solved. The Spore case remains unsolved although a recent "confession" by a Los Angeles mental patient is still being investigated.