OCT. 6, 1943—Military and civilian police officers opened a hunt today for the slayer of Lt. Naomi Kathleen Cheney, 25, pretty brunette women's army corps officer, whose body was discovered shortly after 5 p.m., Tuesday in a thicket below the Omaha viaduct on West Twelfth street.
An autopsy performed during the night by army and civilian doctors disclosed a multiple fracture of the right side of the skull and brain hemorrhages, believed to have resulted from a "tremendous blow with a rock or other heavy instrument."
The examiners reported "no evidence of rape," but army officers said Miss Cheney, a second lieutenant, died under "suspicious circumstances." They said they were "wholly without clues."
Arrest leaves Sioux Falls with only two unsolved killings
While declining to elaborate on the possibility of foul play, Lt. Luther Evans, assistant public relations officer at the Technical School, AAF Training Command, where Miss Cheney was stationed, reported that "there was evidence of a struggle."
She was last seen at 9 p.m. Monday when leaving gate No. 3 at the post.
Signs of Blow
"The doctors estimate that she was slain between 11 o'clock and midnight Monday," Lt. Evans said. "It was about 18 hours before her body was found. There was blood on her face and signs of a crushing blow on the head."
She had been at the station hospital to visit her roommate, another WAC officer, with whom she shared living quarters at 525 South Euclid Ave. After leaving the post, she did not reach her room.
When Lt. Cheney failed to report to duty at the post Tuesday morning she was listed as AWOL, and military police made a routine checkup in an effort to locate her. They made a check at her room, and later in the afternoon when she failed to make an appearance, officers at the post became concerned about her whereabouts.
Val Rae, 10-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond G. Hill, 1202 West Sioux St., found the body in a small clearing in a weed-overgrown hollow a short distance south of the bridge about 50 feet southwest of the railroad tracks, while playing in that vicinity.
City police were notified, and immediately launched a joint investigation with military authorities.
Lt. Cheney has reported to the local station September 4. She apparently met death within three block of the South Euclid Avenue address to where she and her roommate had moved Sunday night from another house in the city.
Preforming administrative duties, she was assistance personnel officer of a technical school group.
She was born September 20, 1918 and her home residence was given as 58 South Ridge road, Jasper, Ala., where her father, Frank B. Cheney lives. A graduate of the Pensacola Fla., high school, she was graduated in 1942 from the Florida State College for Women at Tallahassee, having majored in home economics. She taught one term of high school that year.
Entering officer school April 26 of this year, Miss Cheney won her commission June 5 at the 1st WAC training center, Ft. Des Moines, Ia. She was five feet, five and three-fourths inches tall, weighed 127 pounds and was described by Lt. Evans as "an attractive brunette."
Chief of Police Fred J. Searles and military police reported that no arrest have been made in connection with Lt. Cheney's mysterious death. The agencies are joining forces in widespread probe.
Gate No. 3, through which Lt. Cheney passed on the night she was apparently killed in a struggle, opens onto Northwest Street.
From the position of the body, Lt. Evans said it would have been impossible for it to have been hurled from the overpass where highway 16 crosses the tracks.
"It appears that she probably met death, by violent means, on or very near the sport where the body was found," he said.
The body is being held at the Banton funeral home awaiting arrangements. Military authorities said it will be shipped to Jasper, Ala. pending word from relatives.
*Argus Leader Newspaper, October 5, 1943
An autopsy performed during the night by army and civilian doctors disclosed a multiple fracture of the right side of the skull and brain hemorrhages, believed to have resulted from a "tremendous blow with a rock or other heavy instrument."
The examiners reported "no evidence of rape," but army officers said Miss Cheney, a second lieutenant, died under "suspicious circumstances." They said they were "wholly without clues."
Arrest leaves Sioux Falls with only two unsolved killings
While declining to elaborate on the possibility of foul play, Lt. Luther Evans, assistant public relations officer at the Technical School, AAF Training Command, where Miss Cheney was stationed, reported that "there was evidence of a struggle."
She was last seen at 9 p.m. Monday when leaving gate No. 3 at the post.
Signs of Blow
"The doctors estimate that she was slain between 11 o'clock and midnight Monday," Lt. Evans said. "It was about 18 hours before her body was found. There was blood on her face and signs of a crushing blow on the head."
She had been at the station hospital to visit her roommate, another WAC officer, with whom she shared living quarters at 525 South Euclid Ave. After leaving the post, she did not reach her room.
When Lt. Cheney failed to report to duty at the post Tuesday morning she was listed as AWOL, and military police made a routine checkup in an effort to locate her. They made a check at her room, and later in the afternoon when she failed to make an appearance, officers at the post became concerned about her whereabouts.
Val Rae, 10-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond G. Hill, 1202 West Sioux St., found the body in a small clearing in a weed-overgrown hollow a short distance south of the bridge about 50 feet southwest of the railroad tracks, while playing in that vicinity.
City police were notified, and immediately launched a joint investigation with military authorities.
Lt. Cheney has reported to the local station September 4. She apparently met death within three block of the South Euclid Avenue address to where she and her roommate had moved Sunday night from another house in the city.
Preforming administrative duties, she was assistance personnel officer of a technical school group.
She was born September 20, 1918 and her home residence was given as 58 South Ridge road, Jasper, Ala., where her father, Frank B. Cheney lives. A graduate of the Pensacola Fla., high school, she was graduated in 1942 from the Florida State College for Women at Tallahassee, having majored in home economics. She taught one term of high school that year.
Entering officer school April 26 of this year, Miss Cheney won her commission June 5 at the 1st WAC training center, Ft. Des Moines, Ia. She was five feet, five and three-fourths inches tall, weighed 127 pounds and was described by Lt. Evans as "an attractive brunette."
Chief of Police Fred J. Searles and military police reported that no arrest have been made in connection with Lt. Cheney's mysterious death. The agencies are joining forces in widespread probe.
Gate No. 3, through which Lt. Cheney passed on the night she was apparently killed in a struggle, opens onto Northwest Street.
From the position of the body, Lt. Evans said it would have been impossible for it to have been hurled from the overpass where highway 16 crosses the tracks.
"It appears that she probably met death, by violent means, on or very near the sport where the body was found," he said.
The body is being held at the Banton funeral home awaiting arrangements. Military authorities said it will be shipped to Jasper, Ala. pending word from relatives.
*Argus Leader Newspaper, October 5, 1943
OCT. 6, 1943—Military and civilian police officers opened a hunt today for the slayer of Lt. Naomi Kathleen Cheney, 25, pretty brunette women's army corps officer, whose body was discovered shortly after 5 p.m., Tuesday in a thicket below the Omaha viaduct on West Twelfth street.
An autopsy performed during the night by army and civilian doctors disclosed a multiple fracture of the right side of the skull and brain hemorrhages, believed to have resulted from a "tremendous blow with a rock or other heavy instrument."
The examiners reported "no evidence of rape," but army officers said Miss Cheney, a second lieutenant, died under "suspicious circumstances." They said they were "wholly without clues."
Arrest leaves Sioux Falls with only two unsolved killings
While declining to elaborate on the possibility of foul play, Lt. Luther Evans, assistant public relations officer at the Technical School, AAF Training Command, where Miss Cheney was stationed, reported that "there was evidence of a struggle."
She was last seen at 9 p.m. Monday when leaving gate No. 3 at the post.
Signs of Blow
"The doctors estimate that she was slain between 11 o'clock and midnight Monday," Lt. Evans said. "It was about 18 hours before her body was found. There was blood on her face and signs of a crushing blow on the head."
She had been at the station hospital to visit her roommate, another WAC officer, with whom she shared living quarters at 525 South Euclid Ave. After leaving the post, she did not reach her room.
When Lt. Cheney failed to report to duty at the post Tuesday morning she was listed as AWOL, and military police made a routine checkup in an effort to locate her. They made a check at her room, and later in the afternoon when she failed to make an appearance, officers at the post became concerned about her whereabouts.
Val Rae, 10-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond G. Hill, 1202 West Sioux St., found the body in a small clearing in a weed-overgrown hollow a short distance south of the bridge about 50 feet southwest of the railroad tracks, while playing in that vicinity.
City police were notified, and immediately launched a joint investigation with military authorities.
Lt. Cheney has reported to the local station September 4. She apparently met death within three block of the South Euclid Avenue address to where she and her roommate had moved Sunday night from another house in the city.
Preforming administrative duties, she was assistance personnel officer of a technical school group.
She was born September 20, 1918 and her home residence was given as 58 South Ridge road, Jasper, Ala., where her father, Frank B. Cheney lives. A graduate of the Pensacola Fla., high school, she was graduated in 1942 from the Florida State College for Women at Tallahassee, having majored in home economics. She taught one term of high school that year.
Entering officer school April 26 of this year, Miss Cheney won her commission June 5 at the 1st WAC training center, Ft. Des Moines, Ia. She was five feet, five and three-fourths inches tall, weighed 127 pounds and was described by Lt. Evans as "an attractive brunette."
Chief of Police Fred J. Searles and military police reported that no arrest have been made in connection with Lt. Cheney's mysterious death. The agencies are joining forces in widespread probe.
Gate No. 3, through which Lt. Cheney passed on the night she was apparently killed in a struggle, opens onto Northwest Street.
From the position of the body, Lt. Evans said it would have been impossible for it to have been hurled from the overpass where highway 16 crosses the tracks.
"It appears that she probably met death, by violent means, on or very near the sport where the body was found," he said.
The body is being held at the Banton funeral home awaiting arrangements. Military authorities said it will be shipped to Jasper, Ala. pending word from relatives.
*Argus Leader Newspaper, October 5, 1943
An autopsy performed during the night by army and civilian doctors disclosed a multiple fracture of the right side of the skull and brain hemorrhages, believed to have resulted from a "tremendous blow with a rock or other heavy instrument."
The examiners reported "no evidence of rape," but army officers said Miss Cheney, a second lieutenant, died under "suspicious circumstances." They said they were "wholly without clues."
Arrest leaves Sioux Falls with only two unsolved killings
While declining to elaborate on the possibility of foul play, Lt. Luther Evans, assistant public relations officer at the Technical School, AAF Training Command, where Miss Cheney was stationed, reported that "there was evidence of a struggle."
She was last seen at 9 p.m. Monday when leaving gate No. 3 at the post.
Signs of Blow
"The doctors estimate that she was slain between 11 o'clock and midnight Monday," Lt. Evans said. "It was about 18 hours before her body was found. There was blood on her face and signs of a crushing blow on the head."
She had been at the station hospital to visit her roommate, another WAC officer, with whom she shared living quarters at 525 South Euclid Ave. After leaving the post, she did not reach her room.
When Lt. Cheney failed to report to duty at the post Tuesday morning she was listed as AWOL, and military police made a routine checkup in an effort to locate her. They made a check at her room, and later in the afternoon when she failed to make an appearance, officers at the post became concerned about her whereabouts.
Val Rae, 10-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond G. Hill, 1202 West Sioux St., found the body in a small clearing in a weed-overgrown hollow a short distance south of the bridge about 50 feet southwest of the railroad tracks, while playing in that vicinity.
City police were notified, and immediately launched a joint investigation with military authorities.
Lt. Cheney has reported to the local station September 4. She apparently met death within three block of the South Euclid Avenue address to where she and her roommate had moved Sunday night from another house in the city.
Preforming administrative duties, she was assistance personnel officer of a technical school group.
She was born September 20, 1918 and her home residence was given as 58 South Ridge road, Jasper, Ala., where her father, Frank B. Cheney lives. A graduate of the Pensacola Fla., high school, she was graduated in 1942 from the Florida State College for Women at Tallahassee, having majored in home economics. She taught one term of high school that year.
Entering officer school April 26 of this year, Miss Cheney won her commission June 5 at the 1st WAC training center, Ft. Des Moines, Ia. She was five feet, five and three-fourths inches tall, weighed 127 pounds and was described by Lt. Evans as "an attractive brunette."
Chief of Police Fred J. Searles and military police reported that no arrest have been made in connection with Lt. Cheney's mysterious death. The agencies are joining forces in widespread probe.
Gate No. 3, through which Lt. Cheney passed on the night she was apparently killed in a struggle, opens onto Northwest Street.
From the position of the body, Lt. Evans said it would have been impossible for it to have been hurled from the overpass where highway 16 crosses the tracks.
"It appears that she probably met death, by violent means, on or very near the sport where the body was found," he said.
The body is being held at the Banton funeral home awaiting arrangements. Military authorities said it will be shipped to Jasper, Ala. pending word from relatives.
*Argus Leader Newspaper, October 5, 1943
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