Who Killed Carrie Farrel?

Mrs. Carrie Farrel left her home in Sibley, Iowa, at 7:00 a.m. on May 6, 1889. She went on horseback to visit her parents, who lived about two miles away. When she didn’t return that night, her husband thought nothing strange of her absence. It was not unusual for Carrie to spend the night with her parents. But when her horse returned home riderless the following morning, her husband became alarmed and began searching for her.

He found his wife’s lifeless body lying in a pool of water. On the left side of her face, just below the eye, was a deep scar, indicating a sudden and powerful blow administered by a strong man. He found other bruises around her face and shoulders. On the ground, forty rods away, was a basket of eggs, unharmed, which was taken as another indication of foul play.

Carrie’s parents said she had left their house at 6:00 the previous evening. She took a diagonal course across the field to the main road. This route took her to a seldom-frequented bridge over a slough. In her left hand, she carried a basket of eggs. Although Carrie Farrel had no known enemies, her death was assumed to be a murder. She was highly respected in her neighborhood, and “woe be to the suspected murderer.”

This story was picked up by the Associated Press, and versions of it appeared in papers throughout the country under headlines such as: “A Mysterious Murder,” “Evidence of Foul Play,” “Murdered on a Road,” and “Who Killed Mrs. Carrie Farrel?” However, back in Iowa, the Davenport Democrat Gazette reported that the relatives of Mrs. Carrie Farrel were so well satisfied that death came from being thrown from her horse that no inquest was held. “The story sent out by the Associated Press was highly sensational and wide of the truth.”

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Sources: 

“All Around Iowa,” Davenport Democrat Gazette, May 11, 1889.
“Evidence of Foul Play,” Daily Arkansas Gazette, May 9, 1889.
“Murdered on a Road,” Manhattan Mercury, May 15, 1889.
“Mysterious Murder,” St. Paul daily globe., May 8, 1889.
“A Mysterious Murder,” The Minneapolis Journal, May 8, 1889.
“Who Killed Mrs. Carrie Farrel,” National Police Gazette, June 1, 1889.