Crime News for Owyhee County, ID

Crime News for Owyhee County

Idaho Officials In Thomas Case Are Still More Baffled
Boise, Idaho, Aug 3 - It has been several months since Dick Thomas and his wife mysteriously disappeared from their farm at Silver Creek, Owyhee county and no trace of them has yet been discovered. They disappeared as completely as though the earth had opened and swallowed them, and whether one or both were murdered and their bodies cached in some inaccessible place is as much of a mystery as it was last spring immediately after the disappearance became known. Instead of clearing, the mystery deepened, and a recent attempt at murder on the Thomas ranch has placed another snarl in the already woefully tangled skein. According to a story that has reached Boise, an attempt was made a few days ago to murder Mrs. Murphy, a sister of Mrs. Thomas, who has been living on the Thomas farm since the disappearance of Thomas and his wife. Mrs. Murphy was hanging clothes on the line when some one concealed in a bunch of willows near by threw a rock, striking Mrs. Murphy in the forehead, inflicting a frightful gash. Mrs. Murphy fell to the ground as though dead. When found, some time afterward, she was still insensible, but shortly after recovered consciousness. The officers of Owyhee county have a mystery to unravel that has but few parallels in the northwest.
Source: Pullman Herald.- August 08, 1896
Submitted by Kim Torp

Idaho Girl Horse Thief Sent to State Asylum
Over-Fondness for Palfreys Over-Balances her Judgment, and after her second offense she is caught and committed as Insane.
Blackfoot, Idaho, Jan 5 - A pathetic era in the life of Marian Kirkpatrick has come with her commitment to the state asylum for insane at Blackfoot. Miss Kirkpatrick is the girl who stole a horse in Owyhee county, rode it to Boise, and sold it for $45.

Women of Boise heard about her stout defense, and took up her case, and she was released on bond and taken into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Chirstian (sic) of the children's home. It then developed that she had stolen another horse, and that her fondness for the animals over-balanced her judgment.

In the hearing it developed that she has an uncle and aunt living in Montana, and that a few years ago she married a man in that state by the name of Carter, from whom she separated soon after her marriage, which she declares she was forced to enter into by her uncle and aunt.

She had been bound over to the district court for trial on the charge of stealing a horse from a ranch near Bruneau in Owyhee county, and was awaiting trial on that charge.
Source: The Evening Herald, Klamath Falls, OR. - January 05, 1912
Submitted by Kim Torp

An argument over the muzzling of dogs, says the Owyhee Avalanche, resulted in a knife fight at DeLamar in which Colin Orford was painfully injured, Ben Heazle, the paper names as the other combatant. Orford was cut on the face twice and once on the neck, close to the jugular vein.
Source: Soda Springs Sun - April 8, 1915
Submitted by Shauna Williams

Frak Emheiser has been arrested at Homedale, Owyhee county, on the charge of selling a load of grain belonging to his employer and appropriating the proceeds.
Source: Soda Springs Chieftain - September 24, 1914
Submitted by Shauna Williams

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