Grim Discovery in a Remote Cabin
The discovery of a skeleton and a bullet in a nailed-shut cabin suggests a cold case of murder from the previous year.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Prosecuting Attorney D. W. Bryan was this morning in receipt of information from Judge M. V. B. Lamoreux, justice of the peace at Beaver, that the remains of a man, supposed to be those of William Schilling, have been found in a lonely cabin in the woods, three miles from Beaver. The only means of identification were the clothing, as no parts of the body remained except a portion of the hair. As the skull was turned over it was found to be broken open in the back, and it is supposed to have been done by a sledge hammer which was found in the cabin. As the skull was being examined a .32-caliber bullet fell out, positively pointing to foul play. It is evident that the body had lain in the cabin eight or nine months. The last time Schilling was seen alive was on election day in the company of a friend by the name of Roberts, who suddenly disappeared shortly after. The cabin was securely nailed up from the outside.
“As the skull was being examined a .32-caliber bullet fell out, positively pointing to foul play.”
This discovery recalls the isolation of early settlers in Clallam County, where disappearance often went unnoticed for months. Cold cases in remote areas remain a haunting, persistent reality in Washington's vast backcountry.
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