On This Date in Minnesota History: May 19

May 19, 1906 – Solemn and mysterious burial ceremonies were performed by two well-dressed men and a woman over a dead body that was supposed to have been buried in secret at early twilight today in a vacant lot near Forty-fourth Ave. S. and Forty-third Street, and the police worked far into the night over the bewildering case.

Had not a workman witnessed the entire proceeding, the mystery might never have been solved. He was working on a building some distance from the field when he saw the three people drive into the open area. The men alighted and after helping the woman out, carried a white plush casket from the carriage and set it carefully on the ground. One of the men soon made a grave, and the casket was carefully lowered, while the woman covered her face with her handkerchief and apparently wept. The men then began to fill the grave.

Fearing a crime had been committed, the witness ran to the nearest telephone and called the police.

Captain Henry Getchell of the fifth precinct station and two detectives hurried to the place and searched the field for some time without finding trace of the grave. Then they found the man who had witnessed the burial and he guided them to the place.

Every means had been employed to remove traces of the grave. The surplus dirt had been taken away and the grave covered with brush. The police had worked but a minutes with a spade before they uncovered the casket and raised it. As cautious as the men who buried it, the policemen removed the lid, and the air was filled with the smell of roses. A body lay wrapped in the white fabric and it barely filled the coffin. The costly covering was tenderly removed and when the body was exposed the policemen stepped back speechless.

There, with head resting on a pillow and paws neatly crossed, lay the body of a large pug dog that had evidently died of asthma, the disease so common to his kind.

When those who stood about the exhumed body had regained their composure, the casket and contents were again lowered and the grave filled.

The Minneapolis Journal; “Secret Burial in Lonely spot. Little White Casket Interred Mysteriously by Two Men and a Women.”; May 20, 1906; p. 1.

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