SAW HIS CHUM DROWN.
BUT KEPT FACT FROM PARENTS
OF VICTIM.
Finding of the Body of Martin
Cathro in the Kaw Discounted
the Story Told by Adel-
bert Lacer.
While John Hittle, L. McDonald and R. Retin, railroad laborers of Argentine, were strolling along the Kaw river bank in the vicinity of the Rex mills yesterday morning about 8 o'clock, they discovered the nude body of a boy caught in an eddy a few feet from the bank. The body was afterwards identified as that of Martin Cathro, aged 10 years, of 715 Metropolitan avenue, Argentine. Cathro's father is a foreman in the hair department of the Cudahy packing house. County Coroner Davis ordered the body removed to the Daniels Bros. undertaking establishment.
The drowned boy had been missing since early Saturday afternoon. He went to the river accompanied by Adelbert Lacer, a companion. The Lacer boy had reported to Mrs. Cathro that Martin had caught a meat wagon for Kansas City, Mo., when they had tired of fishing, about 4 o'clock. Chief of Police Frank James, of Argentine, took the Lacer boy into temporary custody. Lacer at first denied any knowledge whatever of the death of Martin Cathro, but finally admitted that he saw him drown while trying to untangle a snagged line several feet from the bank.
"We had been fishing about twenty minutes," said Lacer, "when Martin's line got caught on a snag. The water was pretty shallow where we were, at the deepest being not over one's chin. Martin took off all his clothes and waded in. I looked away a monent, and when I looked again, Martin had gone under. I never saw him again.
"I was awfully scared. I hated to return home without him, and tell people I saw him drown. Then I thought of his clothes. I took them to a clump of bushes near the river and hid them."
Lacer took the officer to the place where he had concealed the garments.
