7 Mar 1914 - Tacoma Daily Ledger (Tacoma, Washington)
Page 1, Column 6
WITH AX ARRESTED
Refuses to Answer Ques-
tions at Inquest
SEATTLE, March 6 - Mrs. Henry Werner, whose husband, a farmer, was killed with an ax near Issaquah last Monday was arrested at the conclusion of the coroner's inquest today and was brought to Seattle, where she is held pending further investigation of the murder.
Henry Smith, an Italian, who also was arrested in connection with the investigation today was also placed in jail here. The coroner's jury returned a verdict that Werner was killed by "a person or person's unknown." Smith is said to have paid visits to the Werner home.
Mrs. Werner, who is 25 years of age, declined to answer questions put by the prosecuting attorney concerning statement smade by her neighbors that she had frequently quarrelled with her husband, was who 30 years her senior, because she received attentions from other men.
After sitting silent more than 20 minutes while the prosecutor attempted to question her. Mrs. Werner collapsed and the inquest was adjourned. Mrs. Werner insisted that she knew nothing about the murder until she found her husband lying dead in the barn. Her 8-year-old son, Wilhelm, testified at the inquest that he heard his father quarrelling with a man in the barn shortly before his body was found.
Mrs. Werner was very weak and had to be supported by neighbors. This weakness is attributed to the effect of the strychnine Mrs. Werner asserts she took when she learned of her husband's murder. Dr. W. A. Gibson states that Mrs. Werner did not take strychnine, as no evidence of the drug was found on her tongue.
Yesterday Mrs. Werner refused to attend the funeral of her husband at the Baptist church and would give no reason for her refusal. Deputy Coroner Fisher characterized Mrs. Werner's refusal to attend the funeral as merely another of the inexplicable circumstances surrounding the crime.