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Show Hi BODIES OF mim mi TOPEKA, Kan., Feb. 15. John J. Rickets, .a farmor, aged 54, and his stepdaughter, Clarabolle Stlckne-, 14 years old, today were found murdered In a slough on tho Rickets farm, eight miles north of here. The girl had been shot in the back of the head and the man's head had been crushed by some blunt Instrument. No positive cluo has been found tonight to-night to tho murder. An examination examina-tion indicated that the girl had been killed first and the man later. The suspicions of Mrs. Rickets, the wife of the man and mother of the girl were aroused when Herbert, her son, returned and said that Clara had not been to school all day. Tho father was also missing. A searching party was formed. When the bodies were discovered it was evident they had been dead for several hours. It is known that the girl did not like her stepfather and the officers incline to the theory that he met her while she wns on her way to school, drove her into the field at the point of a gun; that the shot which killed the girl was fired a few second beforo be-foro the blow which killed the man was struck by somebody who followed, fol-lowed, the'm. Search of the premises tonight failed fail-ed to reveal an? trace of the weapon with which Rickets was killed The girl's dinner bucket was found on one side of the slough, set carefully care-fully in a niche in the bank. On the opposite side of the slough were the glrl'B hat and gloves. Albert J. Stlckney, 21 years old, a half-brothor of the girl, claims to have been In the house sick all day. Both he and Mrs Rickets told the officers that he had not left tho house all day. Mrs. Rickets declared that for more than a year her husband had been making improper proposals to her daughter and that last summer she had to threaten to call in the officers to make him behave. |