Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1906 — MAN HUNT IN WHITE COUNTY. [ARTICLE]

MAN HUNT IN WHITE COUNTY.

Woman Near Burnettsville Assaulted in Her Home —Dastard Overhauled at Kentland. Abeut 2 o’clock Monday afternoon, a stranger about 35 years of age walked into the kitchen of the home of Price Odell, a LAlf mile east of Burnettsville, and demanded something to eat. Mrs. Odell was alone in the house at tbe time with the exception of her five-year-old boy, who was asleep. She told tbe man that dinner had been cleared away and she could give him nothing. At this he started toward and before she could seize anything to defend herself with, struck her to the floor, where she lay unconscious, in which condition the little boy found her some two hours later and ran to the field and informed his father, who hurried to the house tofind that the fiend had outraged the woman. On regaining consciousness Mrs. Odell gave a good description of the guilty wretch, and a man hunt was at once started, every ablebodied man in the neighborhood taking part. Bloodhounds were secured from Noblesville Tuesday and took up the trail in a roundabout way to the Panhandle railroad station, and suspicion was at once directed to a stranger who had taken the afternoon train west. He was traced to Kentland, where he was arrested and taken back to face his victim, who positively identified him as the brute. He was then taken back to Monticello and lodged in jail to await a preliminary hearing. His name is given as Purl Heeter. Heeter is a young married man 24 years of age and resides 10 miles north of Burnettsville, and had gone to Kentland to work. The White County Democrat says that “he claims that be is innocent and that he will be able to establish a complete alibi. He claims that hie father-in-law brought him down to take the train. They had stopped at several places on the road and talked to people, and that he is able to account for his whereabouts from the time they reached Burnettsville until the train left. He may be innocent and the people of Burnettsville are to be congratulated on the almost complete absence of the mob spirit. ‘ “Young Heeter has employed Judge Reynolds to defend him, and the preliminary hearing is set for Saturday at 10 o’clock.”