Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1869 — Horrible Discovery. [ARTICLE]

Horrible Discovery. ———

ABOUT five o’clock on Thursday evening a couple of farmers, named Fred Campbell and Edward Schlick, were engaged in hauling wood, and while crossing the creek, which empties into the river at a point near the stone quarry, they discovered, in the bed of the creek, some fifteen or twenty yards from the river bank, a box partially imbedded in the mud, the creek being almost dry. The sight of the article fully aroused their curiosity, and they immediately set to work to dig it out, a task soon accomplished. The box was pine, about thirteen inches deep, fourteen inches wide and three and a half feet long, and bound at each end with iron hoops. One if the top boards being partially misplaced, they found no trouble in ascertaining the contents, which, to their horror, proved to be the remains of a man, literally chopped to pieces. The head was severed from the body and packed in one corner of the box; both legs had been chopped from the body, and afterward hackled off at the knee and ankle joints; the arms had been taken off at the shoulder, and packed closely alongside the body, while the other dissevered members had been placed in position with a hellish ingenuity that makes the blood chill to think upon. The head had also been sawed and chopped across the front portion of the skull and from the forehead toward the back part of the head, .the top of which had been lifted off. On the chest was placed a fine linen shirt supposed to be of German manufacture. The flesh of the face was entirely decomposed, thus preventing a recognition of the features. The lid of the box was directed in plain black letters to “D. B. Sargent, Omaha, Neb.” Nothing else was found which would in any way throw light upon the mystery. The box is supposed to have been either bought or stolen from the store of Mr. Sargent, on Thirteenth street, for the purpose for which it was used. The Coroner’s jury yesterday rendered a verdict that the man came to his death at the hands of some person or persons unknown. The body is supposed to be that of a man aged about twenty-four years, and had probably been dead three or four months. There are many conjectures rife concerning the terrible affair, but none of sufficient probability to deserve belief. In the hope that it will not be long before “murder will out,” we give the sickening details, and leave the conjecturing to others.—<Omaha Republican>.