The Discovery of an Abandoned Infant

Last Saturday afternoon a woman found a dead baby in the brush near the corner of Third and Water streets, and the officers were quickly informed of the find. Sheriff Meade and Officer Salmon hastened to the scene, where a male infant was found wrapped in a piece of sheeting and deposited in a dilapidated valise. Sunday morning a post mortem examination was held by Drs. McCauley and Osburn. A coroner’s jury was summoned in Justice Boyle’s court Monday afternoon, before which the physicians testified that in their judgment the child had lived long enough after birth to fill its lungs with air; that death was caused mainly by a blow on the forehead and just above the eyes, where they had discovered an ante-mortem contusion. The body was badly decomposed, but from a discolored mark it was determined that the body was that of a white child. The verdict of the jury was in accord with this testimony, coupled with the fact that the names of all parties interested were unknown to the jury. A Mrs. Elder was arrested at Toppenish last Wednesday, but as yet no further developments have been made.