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Murder of J. F. Turner by Welcome and Emerson, in Utah.

The murder occurred on the evening of the 3d of July, 1880, but was not suspected for some days afterwards, as no one paid close attention to the movements of the teamsters or to their coming or going. There had been no witnesses to the crime to tell the story, and the murderers were allowed to move on unmolested and unsuspected. The first suspicion of the crime was formed by the family of young Turner, who, not hearing from the son for several days, began to fear that some evil had befallen him.

Being then told for the first time of the threats which Welcome had made that he would kill the young man, they became exceedingly anxious for tidings from the son, and began to set inquiries on foot. They heard nothing until one day a telegram came to them from Green River, Wyo., some twelve days after the murder, from a friend, informing them that a team which had once belonged to the Turners had been sold at that place. “My boy has been killed!” exclaimed Mr. Turner with sudden conviction, and the young man’s mother fell down in a swoon upon receiving what she too considered positive evidence that her boy had been slain by a murderer.

A day or two afterwards the news of the finding of the body of young Turner was taken to the already heart-broken parents. A mountain man named Leonard Phillips, living in Echo cañon, a stupendous and lonely gorge in the Sawatch range of mountains, familiar to all travelers over the Union Pacific railroad, had gone out one day to look up the outcropping of a quartz vein of whose existence he knew, and noticing a peculiar odor, determined to investigate the cause of it. The stench was so strong that he did not have to look a great while until he came upon a pile of stones thrown in between large rocks.

Looking down upon this mass of rock, Mr. Phillips beheld the limb of a human being protruding from the mass—quite a different outcropping from that which he had gone out to seek. He was naturally horrified at the discovery which he made, but after taking time to collect his thoughts, determined to investigate further. He soon succeeded in bringing the body to daylight, and was astonished at finding that, although there had been considerable decay, he was able to recognize the remains as those of J. F. Turner, whom he had known.

The fact of the ghastly find being made known to Mr. Turner, senior, he ordered the body sent to Provo, and there gave it a decent burial.

The sad rites being performed over the boy’s grave, Mr. Turner determined to hunt the murderer down. “I will follow him to the end of the earth but what I will find him,” he said. “The slayer of my boy shall not live a free man while I have life and means.” He accordingly prevailed upon his brother sheriff, Mr. Allison, to go along with him, and together they started in search of the murderer. There was no doubt in the mind of either that Welcome was the man wanted, but it was not known until afterwards that Emerson had had any connection with the case. Gradually they became possessed of the facts, which they found sufficiently horrible to shock any one not related to the murdered man, to say nothing of the sensation which must have been produced upon the father.