Tales from the Morgue

Cesar Chàvez dignified field laborers' plight

March 31, 2000

By Bernadette Self
El Paso Times

If César Chàvez were alive today, on this, his 73rd birthday, he would still be working to improve the treatment and rights of migrant farm workers in the United States.

He'd be no less despised by many California growers and the big produce companies with whom he locked horns. But perhaps Chàvez's action - and his humble but extraordinary courage and commitment - would be more broadly acknowledged, and appreciated, by the American mainstream if he were here to continue championing the rights of people who, to this day, are viewed more as commodities than human beings.

Chàvez, who died in 1993, will forever be remembered for creating the United Farm Workers union and linked to the 1960s and '70s boycotts of grapes, lettuce and other produce. The boycotts were a means to force California growers to pay more equitable wages to migrant workers (back then, many earned below minimum wage).

Chàvez and the union also fought (without violence) to improve the despicable living conditions in which many migrant workers toiled and to curtail the use of certain pesticides that made workers ill.

"Fighting for social justice, it seems to me, is one of the proudest ways in which man can say yes to man's dignity, and that really means sacrifice," Chàvez once said. "There is no way on this Earth in which you can say yes to man's dignity and know that you're going to be spared some sacrifice."

Chàvez made many sacrifices, which differentiates him substantially from the many wannabe rebels without real causes who parade in the spotlight for public adulation.

Raised in a migrant worker family, Chàvez knew the pain of back-breaking field work. His grandparents came to the U.S. from Chihuahua state (coming through El Paso) in the 1880s. Settling near Yuma, Ariz., the family farmed and operated a general store. Unfortunately, they lost everything during the Great Depression. To survive, they became migrant workers, following the crops into California.

Chàvez attended more than 30 schools but still managed to complete the eighth grade. He worked in the fields into adulthood. He eventually netted a decent-paying job for the Community Service Organization, a workers' advocacy group. In 1962, at age 35, he devoted himself to the unpopular task of organizing a farm-workers' union. His wife, Helen, picked fruit to make ends meet.

By 1965, Chàvez's group had its first big clash with California grape growers. There isn't room to detail the struggles endured, including being threatened, beaten and jailed. But those efforts eventually garnered national attention and support from Americans who sympathized with the plight of migrant workers.

But 35 years after Chàvez organized - with the aid of the AFL-CIO - that ground-breaking, five-year boycott against grape growers, too many people have forgotten the spirit of Chàvez's actions.

To put it bluntly, many view Chàvez as some folk-legend labor organizer who, because his skin was brown and his name "Spanish," is irrelevant to anyone other than Mexican-Americans. Sadly, there are Mexican- Americans who view Chàvez as an inconsequential civil-rights era "dead guy" who is irrelevant because neither they nor their parents were migrant workers.

Even worse, some Mexican-Americans refuse to recognize Chàvez's accomplishments because they perceive him as a Viva La Raza rabble-rouser whose very memory - and the public recognition of that memory with marches, masses and menudo fund-raisers - makes them cringe because, it's so, you know, Mexican. And for some Hispanics with conservative philosophies, Chàvez's links with organized labor are too much to swallow because "union" is a dirty word in corporate circles.

It's ironic that in an age of celebrity worship and money-lust, some people find it so difficult, or offensive, to acknowledge the accomplishments of people such as Chàvez. Had Chàvez's name and skin color been different, would his life's work mean more to more people today?

Acknowledging Chàvez's accomplishments isn't the measure of one's ethnic pride. But Chàvez's actions, and the way he lived his life, are worth recognizing, honoring and using as a model to all who want to stand up for just causes.

People should recall that the same kind of personal qualities and selflessness manifested by Chàvez were demonstrated, in previous centuries, by founders of this nation. Honoring Chàvez's memory isn't just "a Mexican thing."

Tales from the Morge Encore

I'll be out of the office next week. Below are links to articles I posted last year in case you missed them.

The Man in Black(mail)
200 Miles On Two Gallons Of Gas
Tom Ogle's investors
Jet Airliner Hijackers Captured In EP  
Kurt Russell Enjoying Best Of Both Fields
Chamizal Treaty
Cheater Bella
Ben Hogan Out of Danger After Surgery
Slain Star Once Lived In EP, Attended Irvin
Angry mob captures Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez  

Hometown stars

Hometown stars - Mara Holguin
Hometown stars - Lupe Ontiveros
Hometown stars - Gene Roddenberry
Hometown stars - Sam Donaldson
Hometown stars - Jerry Bailey
Hometown stars - Ronn Lucas
Hometown stars - Sandra Day O'Connor
Hometown stars - F. Murray Abraham
Hometown stars - Debbie Reynolds      
Hometown stars - Phil Ochs
Hometown stars - Vikki Carr
Hometown stars - Gilbert Roland
Hometown stars - Susan Blakely
Hometown stars - Irene Ryan  

Orogrande 'sister city' delays 'airport'

June 14, 1979

Orogrande – Nothing is ever simple here. The 80 folk of this small community in the desert south of Alamogordo were all set to cut the ribbon on Orogrande International Airport this Sunday, when they complicated matters by throwing in this “sister city” thing.

Well. As always with Orogrande, it’s a long story. The airport first. A while back, a U.S. Border Patrol aircraft ran into engine trouble in the air above Orogrande and landed on an access road to U.S. 54, which runs through the community.

The plane was towed in to Perry Brunson’s garage, where it has been for about two months while Perry and friends work on the engine. The minor mishap inspired the impish Wood Johnston, who is chief ranger of the Orogrande National Forest (two trees and still growing) and chef du jour of the Oro Chico Café, to dub Perry’s station and garage Orogrande International Airport.

“Oh, we’re having fun,” Woody announced Monday. “We’ve got the signs up already and everything – where the ‘gates’ are, and ‘baggage claim’ counter – everything.”

Plans call for a gala ribbon-cutting Sunday. To those fuddy-duddies who can’t see how Orogrande could be so “presumptuous,” as one man put it. Woody has an easy answer: “Why, our Runway 54 is 80 miles long!”

But what about the sister city business? Seems some Algerian engineers and embassy officials, in El Paso to study the implementation and operation of a natural gas pipeline with El Paso Natural Gas engineers happened upon the Oro Chico.

The café is also the “temporary” Ranger Station of the Orogrande National Forest. What with explanations of that arbor’s sign, and the signs about the airport, the engineers and the Orograndians became fast friends. And the engineers decided Orogrande has much in common with their home town. Zelboun, Algeria.

For one thing, they’re both little desert towns, with about the same head count – 80 humans, dogs uncounted. And, Woody points out, they both have border crossing problems – the Algerians complain the Moroccans come over and take jobs away from natives.

By the time all the comparisons had been made, the Algerians and the Orograndians had decided Orogrande and Zelboun were born to be sister cities. So among the festivities

Sunday will be the presentation to Ali Boukhiar, as representative of Zelboun, of a proclamation from Orogrande and gifts to the Algerian town.

They will be delivered when the engineer goes home in July. “The whole thing’s got to be quasi-official, of course, because we’re not really a municipality.” Woody says. “I’ll be signing the proclamation as chief ranger. But though the airport is tongue-in-cheek, and though there’s a great deal of fun, connected with the sister cities, the feelings of friendship are genuine.

“Surely we haven’t reached the point quite yet in this bureaucratic world,” he adds. “That a proclamation of friendship and hopes for peace must be ‘officially official’ to be real.

Jackrabbits ‘Hunt Cover’

H=January 10, 1932

276 El Paso Hunters To Take Field In Search Of Meat For Needy

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Any old hole will look good to west Texas and New Mexico jackrabbits tomorrow.

The long-legged animals, which have been roaming the arroyos and mesas in comparative safety, are shivering in their “boots.” They have been informed that at least 276 El Pasoans, in 47 teams, armed with shotguns, rifles and pistols, will be after them early Sunday when the annual rabbit hunt of the American Legion and El Paso Game Protective association gets underway.

The hunters are expected to comb a radius of 100 miles in their search for sport and at the same time, meat for El Paso’s needy. The territory in which the hunt is to take place is not restricted to any certain area. The hunters may go to any part of this section, provided their hunting licenses are not violated. Dr. Brown W. Randel, president of the game protective association, said last night.

The game is to be delivered to Barney Oden’s service station in Five-Points. A truck will then transport the rabbits to the Associated Charities for distribution.

'Bicycle' Club Is Closed By Court

September 8, 1916

Judge Pool fines Harry Schaeffer $500 and Ten Days on Liquor Charge

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“Bicycle” club was dealt a crushing blow yesterday when a jury of the county court assessed a $500 fine and ten days against Harry Schaeffer on a charge of unlawfully selling liquor. The defendant gave notice of appeal when his motion for a new trial was overruled by Judge Adrian Pool. He was released on a $1,000 bond pending action of the appeal.

The club complained of was located in Lynchville and according to the defense was operating under a charter that had been granted by the state to Amos Williams, former city hall janitor, John F. Ross and L.F. English in 1910 for the purpose of organizing a bicycle club. The charter, the defense said, had been obtained by transfer when the club for soldiers was organized.

George Murphy, a soldier, said that he had been elected treasurer of the club and there had hardly been time to make proper improvements when the place was closed. The dues, he said, were 50 cents a year. The club rooms boasted three or four tables and a piano.

“We organized to make it pleasant for the soldiers,” he said. “I sang for them.” He never knew it was a bicycle club. He always thought that it was an athletic club. Yes, the members played pinochle, but not for drinks. He had never seen any beer sold to anyone who was not a member. He has handled the beer trade in the capacity of an assistant, he said.

Arthur Danielson said he paid 50 cents to join the club and had bought beer and paid Schaeffer for it. He also declared there was a piano in the place.

“If it had not been for the beer and piano, you would not have joined would you?” County Attorney C.W. Croom asked.

“No, sir,” replied the witness.

Judge James J. Murphy stated that he had gone to the place and saw beer there. Deputy Constable J.W. Brown corroborated that.

The defense maintained it had a right to operate by virtue of the charter granted by the state.

Day - O'Connor Wedding Will Be Held On Dec. 29

December 8, 1952

Of wide interest is announcement of the engagement of Miss Sandra day to John Jay O’Connor III, son of Dr. and Mrs. J.J. O’Connor, San Francisco, Calif.

The betrothal is being announced by the bride-elect’s parents, Mr. And Mrs. Harry A. Day of the Lazy B Ranch near Lordsburg, N.M. The couple will be married on Dec. 20.

Miss Day attended Radford School for Girls here and was graduated from Austin High School where she was a member of National Honor Society and active in school affairs.

She has two degrees from Stanford University, having received a BA in economics in 1950 and a LLB in law in June of this year.

The bride-elect was elected to the Order of the Coif, legal honorary society, and has served as a member of the Stanford Law Review. In her senior year she was president of Union Unit and a member of Cap and Gown honorary society.

She is the granddaughter of Mrs. W.W. Wilkey of El Paso and the late Mr. Wilkey, prominent cattleman of the Southwest. Her paternal grandparents, the late Mr. And Mrs. H.C. Day, established the Lazy B Ranch in 1880.

Miss Day accompanied her family on a five-week trip to Alaska in June, after which she returned to Stanford to study for the California bar examination, which she has just taken in San Francisco.

Mr. O’Connor is the grandson of Mrs. J.J. O’Connor of San Francisco and the late Dr. O’Connor, who founded St. Francis Hospital there.

The prospective bridegroom is a graduate of Stanford University and is now studying for a law degree there which he expects to receive in June. He is affiliated with Delta Upsilon Fraternity, is a member of Phi Delta Phi, legal fraternity, and is a member of the Stanford Law Review.

The young couple will establish their home in Palo Alto until June, after which the bridegroom will enter military service.

1924: Custom agents in gun battle with bootleggers

June 16, 1924

Threepersons “Captures” Band of 16; All But One Escape as Friends Open Fire

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One man is believed to have been killed and several others injured when United States customs officers and a band of probably 25 or 30 bootleggers clashed at Monument No. 1 at the end of First street early yesterday.

Three sacks of tequila and 65 gallons of alcohol were seized by the customs officers and one Mexican, who gave his name as Gabriel Jara, was arrested and placed in the city jail.

Federal officers are of the opinion that the battle was with one of the best organized bands of bootleggers operating in this district, as the bootleggers were using high-powered rifles and a machine gun with their efforts to drive off the customs officers.

Officers “Pitch Camp”

First indications of the battle were seen about midnight Saturday when Customs Officers Threepersons and Wadsworth “pitched their camp” at the end of First street to lie in wait for a cargo of liquor scheduled to be brought across the border.

Shortly after their arrival near a large tree close to the monument, Wadsworth left Threepersons to bring their automobile closer to the scene of operations. No sooner had Wadsworth left when 16 Mexicans appeared.

Threepersons forced the men to lie down on the ground and handcuffed one of them, putting the handcuffs on the man’s right wrist and left leg.

Several minutes elapsed. Then reinforcements opened fire on Threepersons from ambush. Still covering the men lying on the ground, he returned the fire until he had but three cartridges left, he reported.

Wadsworth was unable to return to the scene on account of a cross-fire.

Shoots Man With Riffle

With only three shells, Threepersons grabbed Jara, the only man arrested, and began to retreat. A man jumped in his path and pointed a pistol at him. Threepersons told the man to throw up his hands, but the man refused and fired his pistol point-blank at the officer. Threepersons fired his 30-30 caliber rifle at the man, who dropped to the ground.

Later investigation made by officers showed that the body of a man had been dragged from the scene of battle by a horse.

Threepersons made his way to the office of the union stockyards, where he telephoned for more ammunition and additional men. Police Captain L.T. Robey and Patrolman J.G. Brewster, going to the home of Customs Officer J. B. Womack, took Womack and an additional supply of ammunition to Threepersons.

Other customs officers were called out but by this time the entire band of bootleggers had disappeared, taking their dead and wounded with them.

The gun battle lasted for over an hour and was heard in practically every part of the city, as police headquarters was besieged with calls inquiring about the shooting.

First Veteran To Be Buried In Cemetery

March 6, 1940

Body of James F. Featherstone, 63, Sioux City, Ia., veteran of three wars who died in an El Paso hospital Tuesday, will be the first to be buried in the recently-opened Fort Bliss National Cemetery.

Mr. Featherstone was a veteran of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and the first World War. He had been an El Paso resident for three months.

Mr. Featherstone is survived by three sisters, Mrs. Margaret Crady, Palo Alto, Cal., Mrs. May Pendleton, Sioux City, Ia., and Mrs. Elizabeth Watkins, Guthrie, Okla., and three brothers, John Featherstone, Kansas City, Mo., W.R. Featherstone, Los Angels, Cal., and Andrew Featherstone, San Antonio, Texas.

Funeral services will be held in the Kaster and Maxon Chapel at 2 p.m. Wednesday with Chaplain A.H. Parker officiating.

Members of Hamilton Fish Camp No. 2, United Spanish War Veterans, American Legion Post No. 36, Disabled American Veterans, and Veterans of Foreign Wars will serve as escort from the mortuary to the cemetery.

1912: Cases before the court

April 24, 1912

William E. Baker has filed suit in the Forty-first district court against the Petrolithic & Construction company to recover the sum of $1,000 as damages. The plaintiff alleges in his petition that because of the failure of the defendant company to keep red lights at its construction works at the intersection of North El Paso street and West Boulevard as required by a city ordinance, he ran his automobile into a hole at that point, and it was badly damaged.

William Walker vs. E.P. & S.W. Railway company, a suit for damages, is on trial in the Forty-first district court.

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SHERIFF’S OFFICE BUSY ON COURT CASES

Thursday is clean-up day for the district courts, and the sheriff’s department is the center of much activity. Unless service is obtained by tomorrow in the cases now on the docket for trial for the present term of court, they will have to go over for the next term. Members of the sheriff’s department are making every effort to make the returns before the last day of grace.

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SENTENCED IN THIRTY-FOURTH DISTRICT COURT

Pedro Ortega and Gregorio Navarro, both pleaded guilty yesterday in the Thirty-fourth district court to a charge of burglary, and were sentenced to serve three years in the penitentiary.

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POLICE COURT DOCKET

Following is yesterday’s police court docket: S.T. Johnson, drunk and disturbing the peace, dismissed; George Lewis, vagrancy, dismissed; Francisco Acuna, assault and malicious mischief, $5; Pedro Ortega, assault, drunk and disturbing the peace, $5; J.A. Watson, vagrancy, given one hour to leave town; A. W. Shaw, drunk and down, dismissed; Katherine Kelly, drunk and disturbing the peace, dismissed; Frederico Allre, vagrancy, dismissed; Jose Camarillo, drunk, $5; John Mundig, deserter, delivered to the Fort Bliss authorities.

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OTHER POLICE CASES

George Lewis, who was arrested yesterday morning by the city detective department on a charge of vagrancy, was tried and acquitted yesterday afternoon in police court. Lewis was arrested in the Orient rooming house on East Overland street. It is stated that in the room which he occupied were found many decks of cards, dice, card clippers and other gambling devices. Judge Poll held that the evidence produced against the man was not sufficient to convict him of the charge of vagrancy.

Ernest Reed, who was placed under arrest last Friday as a suspicious character by the detective department and later transferred to the county jail, has been released. The suspicion held against Reed was found to have no solid foundation.

48 years, many theories, no leads. Still missing

January 29, 2005

By Diana Washington Valdez
El Paso Times

The disappearance of William and Margaret Patterson has been a mystery to the police and El Paso for nearly 50 years. It has inspired urban legends, wild stories of espionage and even tales of UFO abductions.

Their old house in the 3000 block of Piedmont was known by generations of El Pasoans as the "haunted house." Over the years, several theories emerged to explain what happened to them: They were kidnapped, they met with foul play, they left everything behind to start a new life elsewhere, they were spies or they were abducted by space aliens.

Now the mystery has taken another turn: The El Paso sheriff's and police departments are taking a new look at the case, which began in March 1957.

"We're assembling all the information in our files and archives," said Sgt. Jim Belknap of the sheriff's Crimes Against Persons unit. "At some point, we will get together with the Police Department people again, lay out everything we have, see what we have and figure out where we can go from there."

Representatives of the El Paso County Sheriff's Department and the El Paso Police Department met during the past week to discuss the possibility of working together to solve the case, which has baffled law enforcement for nearly half a century.

"We're willing to follow any leads that might help to solve this case," said Carlos Carrillo, a missing persons detective for the Police Department. He said Detective Darrel Petry and police spokesman Javier Sambrano are helping him.

Theories of espionage

"I think they were spies," El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said. "The way they got up and just walked away and left everything behind. The Russians, or whoever sent them, probably told them to drop everything and go back. Some people said they had seen Patterson take photographs of Fort Bliss and of military shipments on the trains that came here."

The Pattersons owned Patterson Photo Supply near Downtown.

"It was a high-profile case, very unusual," Samaniego said. "The original theory was that they were kidnapped. There was no sign of a struggle. It's like they went out for a walk and never came back."

The Pattersons' disappearance received widespread publicity and became one of El Paso's best known cases.

In their quest to find the couple, El Paso officials sought help from the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department and Mexican authorities, among others.

El Paso FBI Special Agent Art Werge said he couldn't find any information in the agency's files that go back that far to could indicate whether the Pattersons ever came under surveillance for suspected espionage.

Associates of the Pattersons told authorities in the 1950s that the couple left to go on an extended vacation to Florida, and later, that they sent word that they weren't coming back.

Cecil Ward, a friend of the Pattersons, reported the couple missing Aug. 15, 1957, five months after they were last seen in El Paso. Ward filed the report with then-Sheriff Jimmy Hicks.

Court of inquiry

El Paso authorities convened a rare court of inquiry, also known as an inquest, to look into the couple's whereabouts, but the inquiry failed to find them.

According to news archives, Patterson's 75-year-old father, Luther Patterson, traveled from Chicago to El Paso to testify at the court of inquiry.

He said then, "I always knew Pat and Margaret would take off like this some day, but I figured it to be four or five years away. ... They're not dead. ... My boy has done things like this before. ... He made his living doing sleight-of-hand tricks."

However, several years later, after failing to hear from his son, Patterson's father said he suspected the couple was dead.

Adding to the mystery was the fact that Patterson associates told police that William Patterson had sent written instructions on how he wanted to dispose of his business and private properties.

A letter signed "W.D. Patterson" stated that Patterson wanted his properties to be distributed among Doyle D.G. Kirkland, a friend and manager of Duffy's Photo Supply store; Herb Roth, his business auditor; and Art Moreno, an employee of Patterson who was 24 at the time.

Police lost track of Kirkland after he left El Paso, and Ward and Roth have died. Moreno, who is on vacation out of the country, was unavailable for comment.

At some point, sheriff's Sgt. Belknap said, a signature on one of the letters Patterson allegedly sent was challenged.

Belknap said it was unusual for Patterson to leave his property to those people, considering that he had at least two living relatives at the time, his father and a sister.

Besides the Patterson Photo Supply store in Downtown, Patterson also owned an interest in a high-end boat company, property in Guaymas, Mexico, the house, a boat and a Cadillac.

A girlfriend

During the initial investigation, police interviewed Patterson's alleged 20-year-old girlfriend, Estefana Arroyo Marfin, who lived in Juárez.

She said she last saw William Patterson early March 6, 1957, and said that he told her he had important things to tell her, and that "when they come for me, I'll have to go in a hurry." Belknap said she recanted her statement later.

Ward was the last person to talk to Margaret Patterson, who reportedly had a drinking problem. And Kirkland, they said, was the last person who was at the Patterson house before the couple vanished.

"Kirkland was helping Patterson work on (Patterson's) boat in the garage at the house," said Freddie Bonilla, a former homicide detective who now works as a private investigator. "I can't believe they just took off. They left their house, business, money and their cat. I heard they fed their cat caviar."

The feline turned up when new tenants leased the house.

Several sightings

Several sightings of the couple were reported in Mexico and the United States, but sheriff's officials said they were never able to confirm any of them.

Bonilla suspects that the Pattersons were killed. In 1984, when he was a sheriff's captain, a new witness emerged who gave credence to that theory. His name was Reynaldo Nangaray.

Bonilla, who also was a homicide detective for the El Paso Police Department, said the case was reopened quietly. "I wanted to take the case to a grand jury and get an indictment," he said.

"Nangaray told us he found blood in (the Pattersons') garage and a piece of human scalp on the propeller of Patterson's boat. He found a pair of jeans with a Rolex watch that belonged to Patterson, and said he also saw one of Patterson's (associates) remove bloody sheets from the home and put them inside the trunk of a car," Bonilla said. "He did not talk to police sooner because he was an illegal immigrant at the time, but when he came to see us, he was a U.S. citizen."

Two weeks ago, current residents of the Piedmont house allowed Bonilla to look over the property and photograph the exterior and garage. He has never lost the desire to solve the case.

Nangaray died in a car accident two years after giving his statement to the Sheriff's Department. Belknap confirmed that Nangaray's statement is on file.

Bonilla said his employment contract with the Sheriff's Department was not renewed in 1985, and he thinks the investigation lost steam after that.

Ghost stories

The mystery also fueled rumors that ghosts of the Pattersons haunted their former home. Another detective in the early investigation suspected that their bodies might be there, according to news archives.

"When I was a city patrolman, the house on Piedmont was in my district," Samaniego said. "I would get a hundred calls ... all these kids would stop by the house because they thought the house was haunted, and they would scare this poor old lady who (once) lived there."

Frank Manning, a former chief sheriff's deputy, was in charge of the earlier investigation in the 1950s. Former El Paso County Sheriff R.L. "Bob" Bailey told the El Paso Herald-Post that "at one time Frank thought maybe the bodies were buried right there in or under the house, but he could never find any evidence of it."

Timeline

1957

• Couple disappears March 5 or 6, 1957.

• Business associates tell the public they went on an extended vacation to Florida.

• Cecil Ward, a friend, files a missing persons report in August with Sheriff Jimmy Hicks.

• Authorities convene a court or inquiry, or inquest, to investigate the Pattersons' whereabouts.

1959

• Sheriff R.L. "Bob Bailey" traveled to Valle del Bravo in the state of Mexico to check on a reported sighting of the couple. He was unable to confirm it.

1984

• Sheriff's office reopens the case quietly. Detective Freddie Bonilla interviews a man who claims he cleaned blood from the Patterson's garage and saw one of the Patterson's associates remove bloody sheets from the home. Bonilla was hoping to take the case to a grand jury for an indictment.

1989

• Sheriff's office takes a statement from a woman in Colorado who knew the Pattersons several years before they were reported missing. It does not advance the investigation.

Theories

Over the years, speculations on what happened to the Pattersons have ranged from the serious to the outlandish. Some of the theories and legends their 1957 disappearance have inspired:

• They were kidnapped.

• They left everything behind to start a new life elsewhere.

• They were spies and had to leave suddenly.

• They met with foul play.

• He killed her intentionally or accidentally and left town.

• She killed him intentionally or accidentally and left town.

• They were abducted by UFOs.

• Their spirits haunt their old house in the 3000 block of Piedmont.