Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 18, Number 9, DeMotte, Jasper County, 23 January 1948 — DELPHI IS PUZZLED BY DEATH ANGLES [ARTICLE]

DELPHI IS PUZZLED BY DEATH ANGLES

Death of Mrs. Effie Ball Held Natural, But Has Mysterious Background Delphi, Jan. 22 Mrs. Effie M. Ball, 47, wife of Roscoe Ball, who was found dying on road 39, a half mile south of the city limits yesterday afternoon, died of natural causes under mysterious circumstances,” it was announced by Dr. C. W. Hunter, Carroll county coroner. The coroner’s statement followed a post-mortem by Dr. Frank P. Hunter of Lafayette. It was announced that the primary cause of death was acute dilation of the heart and a secondary cause was hardening of the arteries. While the cause of death was determined, the authorities continued to probe the mysterious circumstances. Mrs. Ball died on the highway about 2:25 o’clock yesterday after noon while flagging down a passing truck driver, Leo Prevo. First reports indicated that Mrs. Ball was the victim of foul play with robbery a possible motive, but after her body was removed to the Leiter funeral home at Flora, the authorities recovered $432 that was missing from the office of the Carroll County Beer Distributing agency. The money was found in two envelopes concealed under Mrs. Ball’s'corset. An unsolved angle of the mystery is the cutting of telephone wires into the Ball residence which also serves as beer distributing headquarters. Mrs. Ball was alone when her husband left at

1:25 o’clock. There were no signs of a struggle and the bruises her body bore are believed to have been sustained when she fell to the pavement. A robbery theory was discounted when it was found that Mrs. Ball had taken time to put a scarf over her head and she also was found to be carrying a pair of gloves. Waves, Collapses. Prevo, told Sheriff Sanford Allen that he saw Mrs. Ball run into the highway and wave frantically. She collapsed suddenly, he said, and apparently was dead by the time he could stop his truck and run to her. State Police Detective Sergeant Herman H. Freed and Detective Abe Taylor of the Lafayette post assisted in the investigation. Born in Democrats township near Cutler, Mrs. Ball spent her life in Carroll county. Besides her husband, whom she married in 1943, she is survived by her father, John Jacobs, of Cutler, and a brother and a sister, Harry Jacobs, Mishawaka, and Mrs. Clinton Curts, Camden. Mrs. Ball was a member of the Cutler Presbyterian church.