Another Herder Dead
A sheep herder in Wallowa county, somewhere on the Looking Glass, made the ghastly find of another dead herder last Friday.
He immediately phoned friends at Milton, who in turn informed the sheriff of Union county. Deputies were dispatched to the scene, but found the place across the line and in Wallowa county. When the Wallowa officers reached the scene the body of the dead man was found to be so badly decomposed as to make its removal next to impossible.
The deceased man is John Krell and, aside from having friends in Milton, Oregon, little is known of the man.
The finding of dead sheep herders hear abouts of late has occurred so frequently as to cause a suspicion of foul play among sheep men. Hardly a week now passes without another addition to the dead list. Usually a cheap gun is found near the body, evidence toward the support of the suicide theory. Can it be that these men are shot from ambush and placed in positions to conceal the real cause of death?
Later – Deputy Coroner Ellsworth, of Island City, accompanied by other parties, passed through this city yesterday on his way to the scene of the herder’s death to hold an inquest. The dead herder is in this county, being on the Garden of Eden road, about 30 miles north of Elgin.
Elgin Recorder Friday July 27, 1906