Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 124, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1914 — MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF ILLINOIS GIRL [ARTICLE]

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF ILLINOIS GIRL

Downers Grove Death Furnishes Another Startling CrimeSweetheart Accused. The body of Florence Bentley iwas found dead Monday in a clump of bushes In the outskirts of Downers Grove, 22 miles out of Chicago. Investigation proved that sh? had died from poisoning or a broken neck. She had not been attacked. On Sunday evening she had gone for a walk with her sweetheart, Reginald A. Barr. Monday Barr was seen by two or three young men and asked if the police were looking for him. When told that they were he broke out crying and said he would surrender. He stated that he had tried to hug the girl and that she had drawn away and gasped and expired in a few minutes. He said he had not informed any one because he feared he would be lynched. Barr’s story is discredited and it is believed that he took her life for some unknown reason. Chicago, May 26.—Reginald Barr, sought as the slayer of his sweetheart, Miss Florence Bentley, of Downers Grove, ended his life early today by throwing himself under a Chicago, Burlington & Quincey railroad train near Lisle, 111.