GIRL SLAIN AFTER DECORATING GRAVES

Anna Schumacher, 17 years old, was strangled in Rochester's Holy Sepulchre Cemetery and Crudely buried.

FOUGHT FIERCELY FOR LIFE

Body Was Dragged Into Underbrush-Stolen Spade the Only Clue-Mother Suspects Cemetery Employee.

Special to The New York Times.

ROCHESTER, N. Y., Aug. 9 1909, The badly bruised body of Anna Schumacher, 17 years old, of 192 Cody Street, was found this morning in a shallow grave in a secluded spot just outside Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, near the drop-off to the Genesee river, where she had been hastily buried by the man or men who had strangled her to death.

The bruises on the girl's arms and chest showed that she had made a desperate resistance. She had gone from her home to the cemetery Saturday afternoon with her hands filled with flowers to place on the graves of her father and sister.

An autopsy on the body of the girl, conducted by Coroner's Physician Dr. John L. Hazen of Brockport, and concluded at 8 o'clock tonight, showed that death was due to strangulation, with small bones in the throat having been fractured by the fingers of the girl's assailant.

It is the theory of the police that Anna R. Schumacher was slain either by a tramp or by some employee of the cemetery or St. Bernard's Seminary, nearby. The seminary has a large amount of land and employs a large number of laborers.

The employees of the cemetery were rounded up and had been examined closely. The police are also arresting all suspicious characters. It is believed that the murderer bears marks of his struggle with the victim, for particles resembling skin were found under her fingernails.

A spade is the only clue.

The only tangible clue the police have is the spade with which the murderer dug out the hole in which the girl's body was found. This was discovered in the pump house of Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. It was plastered with fresh earth and spattered with blood. Later in the day, it was discovered that the spade had been stolen from the pig pen of St. Bernard's Seminary estate. This strengthens the belief of the police that the crime was committed by an employee of that institution. The movements of Anna Schumacher after she left her home on Saturday afternoon have been traced past 3 o'clock that day. A woman friend who rode with her as far as the cemetery saw her get off the car and enter the graveyard. At 3 o'clock, an hour after she entered, she was seen at the cemetery office getting water. The fact that she was not molested until after she had performed her errand of love was shown by the presence on the graves of her father and sister of the flowers she had carried from the house. They had been placed in little glasses containing water.

When Anna did not return to her home on Saturday night, her mother and brothers became alarmed, and late that night they visited the cemetery. With the aid of a lantern, they conducted a search, but without result. The search was continued on Sunday, August 8th, by the relatives of the victim, and later in the day, the police were notified. They in turn notified the authorities of the town of Greece, in which the cemetery is located, and early this morning a determined search was begun.

Constables unearth the body.

Constables Otto Friedman and Stalham Baker struck the trail first. Marks of a struggle were found, as was a trail, possibly of a body being dragged. This led to a depression in a clump of undergrowth, which the officers penetrated. Sticking out of some loose earth, they spied a fragment of white cloth, and they began to dig. The first evidence of the body was the feet doubled back over the trunk. Then the body was revealed. It lay in the four-foot-long excavation, face downward, the mass of hair full of sticks and grasses, indicating that her slayer had grasped her by the feet, dragging her over the ground. Underneath her face was her hat, filled with torn fragments of her underclothing and containing her purse, which her murderer had opened and rifled off the small change the girl had with her.

Lifted out of the hole, the body gave evidence of the desperate struggle the girl had made. Her left cheek was bruised, and over her eye was a fresh cut. Her arms to the elbows were bruised, and her torn hands showed that she had fought hard. The body was quickly identified and removed to the morgue. Afterward, the police closed the cemetery to the public and began a search for clues. A man who, by his manner and actions, aroused the suspicions of officers at work on the case was seen at 4 o'clock this afternoon at the spot where the girl's body was found. Officers began to approach the man, whereupon he turned and fled into the dense underbrush. The woods into which the man disappeared were surrounded, and a telephone call for assistance was sent to Police Headquarters. Chief of Police Quigley, who received the call, immediately dispatched two motorcycle officers and sent three other members of the department to the scene in an automobile. At a late hour, this man had not been captured. Anna's body was turned over for further investigation to Henry Kliendienst, Coroner, and investigator.

Mother suspects cemetery employee.

A number of reports were received at the Schumacher home before 1 o'clock today, and after hearing them, Mrs. Mary A. Schumacher declared that she suspects a workingman in the employ of the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery of having murdered her daughter. Mrs. Schumacher based her suspicions on reports that reached her of girls having been chased by a man employed in the cemetery. Two distinct stories of women being chased in the cemetery were told to men and women who yesterday searched throughout the old and new cemeteries for clues about the girl. "You may say for me," said Mrs. F Schumacher, that I have suspicions of a workingman at the cemetery as having committed this crime."

Two of the girls who had been to the cemetery this morning returned and said that when they were searching the cemetery yesterday, a man employed there said to them, If you don't find her (the missing girl) in Section H, there's no use looking for her." This man was described as having a plain face, blue eyes, being of medium height, and wearing a straw hat. girls did not know his name. It is also stated that this man said that a girl answering the description of Miss Schumacher was seen in company with a tall woman wearing a pink dress who acted wild."

The two were seen in the cemetery late Saturday, and the woman in pink was seen to leave the cemetery alone at about 7 o'clock. There is no clue to her identity, and whether she knows anything about the murder remains to be seen.

Girl Seen in the Cemetery by Witness.

The sister's grave (One-year-old Gertrude Schumacher) is in the old part of the cemetery. Anna went there and left a bouquet. She cut away some long tufts of grass and threw them into the roadway. She carried a pair of scissors for that purpose that she borrowed from her mother. The scissors were found in her hat in the grave where the murderer left her. At her father's grave, some distance away from that of his daughter, she left the other bouquet and did some trimming of the sides of the grave.

Several people have been found who saw Miss Schumacher in the cemetery on Saturday afternoon. About 4 o'clock, Mrs. William Farman, wife of one of the men employed at the cemetery, saw the girl at the pump near Poplar Lane. This was about 150 feet from the car line, and it was thought that she was about to leave the cemetery. Mrs. Farman thinks the girl started for the car line from the pump.

Mr. Farman, however, declares that he saw the girl after she had left the pump, where she had a drink of water. He says she started back toward the graves of her relatives. He was probably the last person, except the murderer, to see her alive. Farman was driving a wagon in the cemetery at the time.

About 33 yards from the spot where the body was found is a little shrine to the Virgin Mary. This shrine WAS erected in a cleft in the bank where it meets the drop-off to the Genesee River.

Gertrude "Gertie" Schumacher is moved

I confirmed with Holy Sepulchre Cemetery today (March 25th, 2024) that Gertrude Schumacher, the sister that Anna would go to visit in the cemetery, was relocated after Anna's death. She was moved on September 1st, 1909, from her original location of East Section 14 Tier 1 Grave 64. She is now next to her sister, Anna, and her father. Just one month after Anna was killed.