Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-25 | Page 32 | Probe into Death of Sheepherder

PROBE 10 DEATH OF MEIER Evidence Not Conclusive, but Suspect Held for Further Fur-ther Investigation. An inquest into the death of Philip Manuez, Mexican sheepberder, was held by Justice Hugo B, Anderson iu the undertaking parlors of O'Donncll Sc Co. yesterday afternoon. The principal witness wit-ness was William Henry Smith, a friend who had accompanied the Mexican on Wednesday evening when the death occurred. oc-curred. Smith testified that he and Manuez hail visited several saloons, Btaying only a few minutes in each, before they came to the White House bar, 208 South Main street.. There, he said, Robert Smith, under arrest as a suspect, and three other men drank with them, but Manuez had only takcu a sip of his beor when he fell to the floor. His testimony failed to show that Robert Smith had had exclusive opportunity to administer the chloral hydrate which is said to have caused death. Herman Harms, tate chemist, testified testi-fied at length as to having found in tho stomach of Manuez chloral in sufficient suf-ficient quantity to cause death. The , other witnesses were not able to bring out sufficient points to prove that Rob-i ert Smith was the guilty man. The jury found that Mauuez's death had! resulted from the administration of chloral hydrate by some person or persons per-sons unknown. After the inquest Robert Smith was remanded to the city jail for further investigation. Joseph Sharp, chief of detectives, said that he would not release re-lease Smith for some time, and that with the running down of certain clues in his possession he horded within a short time to have definitely established estab-lished the identity of the guilty per-: per-: sons. , The dragnet which the police have been , drawing since the death of Manuez, last night caught In Its folds R. B. Allen, who, the police say. Is an adept at the use ot the somniferous drug. Allen was arrested arrest-ed In a saloon on Second South street by Patrolman Hush Carr. When searched at police headquarters he had in his pocket a vial, uncorked, and smelling strongly of some drug, which policemen declared to be chloral. The police suppose that Allen had been carrying In the vial sufficient cniorai tor one oose, ana mat wnen ne saw the officer enter the saloon he poured out the chloral and saved the vial for future fu-ture use. Allen, the police say, has served a term of some eighteen months in the penitentiary peniten-tiary for a similar offense, being released about six months ago.