A Bloody Knife Turns Up at Madrona Park After Michael Warren's Death
A woman finds a three-bladed knife near the spot where Warren cut his throat, giving Seattle police a possible missing link in a grim holiday mystery.
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the knife used by Michael D. Warren to cut his throat at Madrona park last Saturday evening was probably cleared up yesterday afternoon. Chief of Police Rogers has in his possession at headquarters a knife which has blood upon two blades, and from the place in which it was found there is every reason to believe that it belonged to Warren.
A woman found the knife and gave it to Detective Cudihee. She refused to allow her name to be used in connection with the discovery of an important link in the case, and the detective helped her out by forgetting her place of residence, whether she was young or old or good-looking or homely, and didn't pay any attention to the color of her eyes. She found the knife on the land at Madrona park, not far from where Warren's body was found.
The knife is about three and one-half inches long and has a rough horn handle. It has three blades, two of which look as if they had never been used. The third and largest is smeared with blood and has the appearance of having been sharpened recently. There were no marks to indicate ownership, but the mark on the blade is "H. Boker & Co.'s improved cutlery."
“She found the knife on the land at Madrona park, not far from where Warren's body was found.”
Madrona Park was then a new lakeside pleasure ground on the edge of Seattle; a bloody knife found in the brush was the kind of detail that sold papers. The story also shows how a vanished weapon could keep a case alive in the public imagination, even after a death had been ruled a suicide. Today, forensic science would likely resolve such questions in hours, but the human fascination with the missing blade remains.
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