Laura Jane Harvey Murder: Part Six

From the first week of June though all of July, no word of the murder or the search was published in the local newspaper. Other items of interest caught the public's fancy like another murder of a woman and two children by axe in nearby Batavia, Iowa. However, the killer 70 year old John Kephart was captured a few days later still driving the bloody wagon that the murders took place in, complete with a bloody wagon hammer and the money that the murder happened over. Over the next couple weeks, the newspaper dissected his life much like they still do today, trying to make sense of a senseless act. But then on August 2, 1860, the Laura Jane Harvey murder snapped back into focus.

The body of George Lawrence was found making this case a double homicide and a search for a single killer.

On the 28th of July, John Butchler, a hired man for Lewis Hess, was searching for a cow among the cane brakes of Copperas Creek and was hiking out of a steep ravine trying to make the nearby Agency Road at the head, when in a particularly steep part of it, he came across a decayed skeleton. The skeleton was in good condition other than one missing leg and was lying on it's back with most of the flesh gone. The hair had come detached from the scalp but was still there along with all the clothing including a coat, vest, pants, gaiter boot on the one remaining foot and a silk cravat around the throat. 

The county coroner C.G. Packard, was immediately summoned along with Q.A. Wood, William L. Orr and land owner Lewis Ness to make up a jury to examine the body where it lay and again later back at the courthouse. Using mostly the clothing for clues and interviewing various witnesses, the jury determined that the deceased was that of George Lawrence and he had died due to a hole in the occipital bone on the backside of the skull due to an unknown instrument. Many witnesses were interviewed and W.F. Smith testified that he had mended the pantaloons of George Lawrence and matched the tear and mending to the pants found with the skeleton. Miss E. Potter, identified the coat as one that she had sewed buttons on for Lawrence the night he stayed at their hotel and Henry Burhans identified the buttons as one he had sold Lawrence before his disappearance. Many other witnesses swore that the size of the skeleton, shoe and hair color and other features matched their recollections of George Lawrence. 

The remains were interred the following day with the exception of the clothing which was kept Mr. Packard the coroner. Of special interest was the silk scarf which was noted at being expensive, $5 and was tied in a sailor's knot. Though I have searched, I have found no record of George Lawrence's burial in Ottumwa nor records of his body being removed. 

The ravine where Lawrence's skeleton was discovered explains why it took so long. It is located three miles east of town about one mile east of Sugar Creek and about halfway between the railroad tracks of the B&M R Railroad and the Agency road which is the road leading from Ottumwa in the direction of Iowa City where his wagon and horses were discovered. The body had been near the head of the ravine where erosion had made the banks extremely steep on either side making anyone wishing to cross to travel around the head instead of going down one bank and up the other. Surrounding the ravine was heavy timber and vegetation thus it was only by chance, Mr. Butchler had selected that ravine bed as a ramp to reach higher ground in his search for the missing cow. Had he not, it may have not been discovered for many years to come.