NUDE BODY OF A MAN FOUND ON SHORE OF MISSOURI RIVER

HAD BULLET HOLE THRU HIS CHEST

Evidently Had Been Mysteriously Murdered and Thrown Into the Water

Was Devoid of Any Clothing and Any Identification Was Impossible

Coroner From Linton Viewed the Remains and Ordered Body Buried

A nude body of a man was found on Monday afternoon on the shores of the Missouri river near Peter Shier's ranch, about 35 miles south of Bismarck, and about 16 miles west of Linton.

Parties finding the body immediately notified the coroner of Emmons county, who went immediately to the scene, and after examining the remains ordered them buried in a nearby cemetery.

The body was absolutely devoid of any clothing and identification was utterly impossible, though the authorities have started a thorough investigation.

There was a bullet hole through the body, the man having been shot in the chest, and the bullet had left the body at a point under the left shoulder blade.

The man had evidently been in the water about ten days, but as there was no water in his lungs, it was thought that he had been killed and then thrown in the river to dispose of the remains.

It is thought he must have been killed at a point near where the body was washed ashore, for no body could have washed any great distance in that length of time.

He was a man between 50 and 60 years of age, weighed about 180, and had a rather heavy mustache, though that had been torn some by the water.

When the news was first brought to Bismarck it was thought the remains might have been those of Brakeman Rutherford, who so mysteriously disappeared from a freight train while his train was crossing the river last April, between Bismarck and Mandan, but this man was too old to have been Rutherford.

Another theory that was advanced by people down along the river was that the body might have been that of Fred Hammond, a restaurant keeper, who mysteriously disappeared from Washburn about two weeks ago, but information from Washburn last night stated that Hammond had been last seen at Turtle Lake, that he afterward took a train from Carrington, and is thought to have left the state.

The case is one of deep mystery, but the authorities of Emmons county hope to soon have a clue.

Bismarck Tribune, 7/15/1913