By Associated Press
A formless heap of bones with a bullet-punctured skull standing out in high relief, yesterday marked the end of the two weeks’ old trail of official and private investigation that started when Major Samuel H. McLeary, United States army, disappeared while en route from Raleigh to Columbia, S.C.
They were pointed out and identified not 150 feet from the Raleigh-Columbia Highway in a densely wooded region, a dozen miles south of Cheraw by Mortimer N. King, who, according to officers, confessed Wednesday that he and a companion, whose name was withheld by officials because he has not been arrested, killed Major McLeary on the afternoon of July 2, after they had accepted the officer’s offer to give them a lift in his automobile.
Dispatches received from Union, S.C., yesterday said that Frank Harold, 22-year-old construction worker of Lockhart, near Union, was being sought by officers in connection with the case. Early last night there was no report as to whether or not he had been arrested.
King, immediately after he pointed out the scene of the tragedy and led by the officers to what remained of the officer’s body, was brought to Columbia, S.C., and lodged in the Richland County jail. A coroner’s jury empaneled shortly after the discovery of Major McLeary’s remains, returned a verdict that the army officer came to his death of gun-shot wounds inflicted by King and “other parties unknown to the jury.”
Although once or twice King appeared on the verge of point out other places as the location of the body, according to officers who brought him from Canton, S.C, where he was arrested, when the right spot was reached, he recognized it immediately and led the way to where he said he and his companion had dragged Major McLeary’s body, after they had forced the officer at the point of a pistol to leave his automobile and accompany them into the woods, where he was shot.
Two bullet holes were found in the skull, one on each side near the temples. Major S.M. Williams, United States army, who testified at the inquest, said King’s confession declared the officer was shot twice, the second shot ending his life.
No clothing, except for a few scraps, so stained and soiled as to be unrecognizable, was found with the officer’s remains. His shoes, however, were intact.
Miss Bonnie McLeary, a sister of the dead officer, was reported to have gone to Cheraw yesterday, but it is said she did not visit the scene of the tragedy. The remains will probably be sealed in a casket pending instructions from the adjutant general of the army, as to their final disposition, it was indicated.
From the front page of the Tri-City Daily Gazette, Leaksville, N.C., Friday, July 18, 1924
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