Clay County AlArchives News.....Discovery of Dead Babe February 9, 1933
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Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 November 17, 2022, 7:39 pm

Ashland Progress February 9, 1933
Part of the dismembered body of a new-born girl baby which someone had attempted 
to conceal in a very shallow hole in the ground, was discovered in the vicinity 
of Campbell's Crossroads Friday afternoon, near the home of Dan Watts. A search 
which led to the gruesome find was began when some dogs were seen carrying a 
part of the body onto the premises of E. G. McClellen, and it was found that the 
dogs had scratched the body from its shallow hiding place, near which one of its 
arms was found, also some fragments of skull and brains. The search also led to 
the suspicion that Thelma Watts, a sixteen-year-old girl, had given birth to the 
babe and that it had been killed. She was brought to Ashland Saturday and 
examination by physicians confirmed the suspicion, and she is said to have 
admitted it was hers. She has stated that the babe was born dead and that she 
buried it herself, but she and her father, Dan Watts, a brother, Huey Watts, and 
a brother-in-law, Bob Shirey, are being held in jail, pending an investigation 
of the affair by the grand jury which will be convened Monday. The girl's mother 
died some here or four years ago and she has since been keeping house for the 
family her father and six brothers. Bob Shirey is also said to have lived in the 
house with the family a considerable part of last year.



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