1. After confessing that he was the cause of his sweetheart, Emily Benton's, death, Alfred Barker committed suicide at 6:00 a.m. to-day by throwing himself in front of a Burlington express train near the town of Ashworth. In his pocket was found the following note:
"Dear Folks: God forgive me for causing my sweetheart's death. I did not kill her. We walked out there and sat down. I tried to kiss her and she repulsed me. I asked her if she did not want to be my sweetheart any more. She wouldn't answer. I took a hold of her waist, pushed toward her, and tried to love her. She started to scream, and I went completely out of my head.
"She became quiet all of a sudden. I thought I had hurt her and she was breathing heavily but was senseless. I covered her up and don't remember what happened until I awoke to find myself lying along the road, near Naperville.
"My mind came back. I realized what I had done and I went over to the quarry and jumped in, but could not sink.
"Then I went to Aurora, bought some chloroform, and that night (Sunday) I came back and found my darling's body, and I realized that she was really dead. I laid down beside her and took chloroform, but about 2:30 a.m. I woke up and the bottle had tipped over.
"Then I went to Belmont and got a freight and rode to Aurora, where I got more chloroform. I came back to Dawson Grove and went into the woods and saturated my handkerchief with chloroform, thinking I would surely die. But it failed to work also.
"I could not live and know that my sweetheart Emily was dead, so I have resolved in a desperate way to end my life.
"The girl died of heart failure or fright, as I surely could not kill the one I thought the most of in the whole world.
"I loved her more than words can tell and I would die for her and I will die for her.
"I have been partly insane for the last two days.
"Forgive me and I pray to meet my sweetheart in heaven.
"Alfred."
This morning at 10 o'clock a jury impaneled by W. V. Hopf, Ellis County coroner, will assemble in Dawson Grove for an inquest into the two deaths. At the same hour the funeral of the girl will be held from the house of the widowed mother she supported. The funeral of Barker will be at two o'clock to-morrow.
GIRL DEAD IN MYSTERY CASE
2. Miss Emily Benton was found dead late yesterday in a patch of bushes on the outskirts of the village of Dawson Grove. She had disappeared Saturday evening in company with Alfred Barker, a young man who had been paying her attention since childhood.
Searching parties in the field since early Sunday morning were joined last night by a sheriff's posse in the quest for Barker. Barker is described as an athletic young man with a "Johnny Evers" jaw. Barker was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and a blond.
Barker and the girl were "pals" in the words of their relatives, who only half guessed at times that perhaps the long friendship would become a "match." Together the girl and Barker often through the springtime took long walks at night—occasionally a matter of many miles—to the villages of Hinman and Nashville. For several years the couple rode to Chicago together to work every day on the same commuters' train and often returned home together at night.
While an alarm was sent out through all the surrounding towns for the apprehension of Barker, no charges have been made against him. An autopsy held in secret by Coroner Hopf of Ellis county was expected to reveal the cause of the girl's death.
Alfred Barker, returning from his work at the general offices of the Burlington Railroad in Chicago, dropped off a train at the station in Dawson Grove on Saturday afternoon at 5:15 o'clock. He lingered about the station platform until the 6:30 train came in and met Miss Benton, home from her day's work at the Parisian Fashion Company in Chicago. Together they walked to the girl's home and stood talking on the doorstep of the Benton residence, just as they had most every afternoon in the last seven years. The mother says she overheard this conversation:
Alfred.—"Let's take in a show to-night."