The Tragic Murder of Emma Kelly
A young Seattle school girl is killed by her companion, a man who claimed they were in a 'tragic romance' that ended in a fatal shooting.
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.
In the murder of Emma Kelly, aged 15, by Daniel K. Miller, aged 19, a tragic tale of a misdirected young life is revealed. Miller, who had been in the city but a short time, having come from the Sound, was arrested Wednesday morning for the murder of the girl. In an interview, Miller told a reporter that he had known Emma for about a month. He stated, 'I became convinced that she had fallen in love with me, for she followed me continually, and, of course, I took a fancy to her.' When asked how she responded, he said, 'By calling me sweet names.' He claimed that on the night of the crime, they had met by appointment and that the act was impulsive, driven by an argument over a letter. The girl's family and the neighbors remain in a state of shock, describing Emma as a well-behaved student. Immediately after the shooting, Miller fled to the woods, where he was apprehended by police after an intensive search.
“I became convinced that she had fallen in love with me, for she followed me continually, and, of course, I took a fancy to her.”
This 1886 report captures the era's tendency to romanticize or frame lethal violence against young women through the lens of 'tragic romance.' Today, the reporting of such domestic violence and the vulnerability of school-aged girls remains a critical, albeit differently nuanced, challenge in Seattle’s public safety discourse.
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