MOTHER FEARS GIRL MURDERED

INVESTIGATION STARTED INTO DEATH OF GRACE SMITH OF FELTON.

CORONER OF RAMSEY COUNTY REPORTED DEATH DUE TO SUICIDE.

One of the saddest stories ever told in Clay county reached its conclusion last Saturday, when all that was mortal of Grace Smith was delivered in a coffin to her mother at Felton. Grace Smith, only 18 years old, is dead, and she took her own life in St. Paul, according to the coroner of Ramsey County.

Some years ago this innocent little girl was found to be a victim of her stepfather's sexual desires when at the age of 14 she was found to be in a delicate condition. The outcome of the affair was that the girl was sent to Sauk Centre and the brute of a stepfather was sent to state prison, where he is still held. After the girl had been at Sauk Centre for a time the state found a home for her with a family in St. Paul. Everything apparently went well until recently when the home was to break up. The son was to marry and the old folks intended to move to California. Another home was found for the girl but shirtly before she was to move she went into the basement and there she ended all by shooting herself in the breast. The Ramsey county authorities investigated and a coroner's jury returned a verdict of death inflicted by her own hands.

The body of Grace was sent back to her mother at Felton, this county, in charge of two nurses, and there she was buried.

The mother, Mrs. Smith and the dead girl's uncle, Ole Larson, left for St. Paul on Wednesday to investigate the death of the girl, fearing that she had been the victim of foul play. The mother had not been notified of her daughter's death until a few hours before the body arrived at Felton.

Moorhead Daily News, 8/18/1923