Frank
Kitchen's Body Found
The body of the late Frank
Henry Kitchen, who was last seen alive on May 28th, when he left
Vanessa for his home near Waterford late at night and having on his
person considerable money, and for whose whereabouts diligent
search had been made, was found Saturday by his brother Earnest,
lying close to the rear boundary fence between two farms fronting
opposite concessions, and immediately west of the centre of his own
"string" hundred.
One hundred and eight
dollars in bills and some silver were found in the clothing. The body
had been reduced to a skeleton and integument.
Detectives have worked on
the case for weeks, expecting foul ploy, and one of them is reported
to have said: "Produce the body and I will produce the
man."
Coroner Teeter of Waterford
called Dr. McGilvary of Simcoe to made a post-mortem examination,
and notified Crown Attorney Slaght. A jury of neighbors was sworn
in, visited the place where the man was found, viewed the body in
the farm barn and adjourned until next Saturday to meet at
Waterford.
Kitchen was an industrious
and apparently intelligent farmer, who was, from all appearances,
making good and improving his property.
It is said that his wife did
not spend much of her time about the home; was away when he
disappeared and had arrived at the farm on Friday night.
The remains were interred in
Greenwood Cemetery on Monday afternoon.
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Simcoe, July 8. -- A span of
horses were on Saturday morning about 11 o'clock the means of the
finding the body of Frank Kitchen, the Townsend farmer who had been
missing for the past five or six weeks.
While there is a certain
satisfaction in discovering the body of the unfortunate man, whether
the mystery of his death will be solved cannot be foretold.
A brother of the deceased
works the old Nelson Clouse farm, just north and across the road
from the farm of Mr. Seymour Collver. The farm of Frank Kitchen lies
to the north with the entrance on the Cherry Valley road.
The brother was on Saturday
working up a field on the Clouse farm with the intention of planting
buckwheat. Near a certain isolated spot, where bushes grow, his
horses shied.
He stopped them and then
noticed an odor apparently coming from the bushes, and in the corner
of the rail fence, hidden among the bushes, he found what was left
of Frank Kitchen.
The body was badly
decomposed, weighing in fact only 30 pounds, but he was able to
identify it by the clothes, by the set of false teeth, and by the
purse, containing a sum of money, something over one hundred
dollars.
He gave the alarm and
Coroner Teeter of Waterford was sent for. Upon his arrival he
empanelled a jury who viewed the remains and who will sit next
Saturday evening at 7 o'clock in Waterford.
The spot where Kitchen was
found was only a few feet from his land, and close to the land of
Harry Messecar. He lay within 90 feet of where persons have passed.
On one side of him a field of oats had been planted and on the other
the empty field that was being readied for buckwheat.
A post-mortem was held, Dr.
McGilvery of Simcoe performing it, but so far decomposed were the
remains that it is scarcely likely that he will be able to decide
what was the cause of death, so completely had the elements
destroyed any evidence there may have been. The sight was indeed a gruesome
one, say those who saw the body.
The farm has since been
visited by several hundred people, anxious to see for themselves the
scene of the happening.
Search had been made
continuously for Kitchen, and the line fence to within a short
distance of this place was examined without results. The brother had
been in the field a couple of weeks ago, but not in the immediate
neighborhood of the clump of bushes.
Kitchen had been missing
since the night he returned from a visit to his brother living at
Vanessa. His horse was put in, the vehicle run in the shed, and from
that time no trace of him was found. Neighbors noticed his cattle
needed attention in a day or so, and from that time on, the
whereabouts of the missing man was a profound puzzle.
