Salt Lake Tribune

18 January 1914

Page 24

 

 

DETECTIVES FIND

   APPLEQUIST’S ROOM

          __________

 

Effects of Man Wanted in

Connection With Morrison

   Murders Are Searched

          __________

 

NO TRACE OF SUSPECT

          __________

 

Hillstrom, Wounded Prisoner,

     Who Will Face Murder

       Charge, Recovering.

          __________

 

Of the many rumors as to the whereabouts of Otto Applequist, wanted in connection with the Morrison murders, none so far has developed into a clue that would stand investigation. 

Inspector Carl A. Carlson and Captain John J. Roberts, of the police department, spent yesterday in Garfield investigating reports to the effect that the wanted man had been seen there.  They found that Applequist was well known to many of the workmen of the mills and smelters, but could not find that he had actually been there since the killing.

Detectives George M. Cleveland and C.C. Carstensen succeeded in locating yesterday the room where Hillstrom and Applequist stayed when in Salt Lake.  The effects of Applequist were taken to police headquarters and searched for clues as to his probable destination.  As to what they found, the police were reticent.  The finding of the room, however, is regarded as a step toward solution of the problem of finding Applequist, as the record of his habits of life is becoming daily more complete. 

Joseph Hillstrom, the wounded man arrested at the Eslius house in Murray, is rapidly recovering from the effects of his wound.  He eats heartily three times each day of the food afforded at the county jail.  His strength is noticeably increasing and there is little doubt now among those acquainted with his case that he will recover. 

Preparatory to the filing of a complaint charging Hillstrom with murder in the first degree, deputy sheriffs have been securing interviews and statements from neighbors of the Morrison family as to what was seen and heard on the night of the crime.

The statements which have been collected have been woven into a chain of circumstantial evidence on which the complaint against Hillstrom will be hinged.  No one person has been able to give a complete account of the affair, the most important witness being Merlin Morrison, the young son who was in the store at the time that his father an brother were killed.

Other neighbors told of seeing the men run from the store, and still others told of hearing one of the men make some remark about being shot.