Came For The Body
Accompanied by an undertaker the brother of Otto Truman, the young man who was killed in the yards here Wednesday morning (July 15), arrived from Ottawa last evening. The body was prepared for shipment and was taken east on train No. 18 last night. The brother preserved a strange reticence in regard to all matters connected with the dead man. It was ascertained, however, that the young man’s age was twenty-one and that he had been working in the harvest somewhere in the western part of the state. The father had sent for him to come home. The body was not mutilated and the young man had no trouble in identifying his brother’s remains. A strange thing in connection with the affair is the number of communications received by the coroner from persons who have lost their sons recently. This morning Dr. Abby received a letter from Albert A. Smith at Kansas City who suggested that the body might be that of his son Walter G. Smith who mysteriously disappeared from home June 28. The Kansas City papers had much to say about the affair a few days ago, and in his communication the father says “Have not found my boy yet.” The coroner also received a telegram from Mrs. Hattie Williams at Garnett, Kansas, who asked that a description of the dead man be forwarded to her, adding, “I think it is my boy.” These people had seen the notices in the Kansas City papers and wrote in the hope of learning the whereabouts of their “boys.” Probably a sad story is back of each of the communications. The Evening Kansan-Republican, Newton Kansas. July 17, 1903. Page 1.
Otto Truman is buried with his parents in Ottawa, Kansas.