OBIT: Kenneth PUTT, 1940, of interest in Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
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KENNETH PUTT

No Clue To Who Hit Hitch Hiker
13 Year Old Boy's Body Was Found Under Porch Near Reel's Corner

  Imbued with the wanderlust spirit, Kenneth Putt, 13, of Dudley, Huntingdon 
County, came to his death in some manner while on one of his many hitch-hiking 
tours to visit a sister, Mrs. Esther McCormick, in Duquesne, Pa.  His lifeless 
body was found protruding from the side of a certain cabin near Reel's Corner, 
last Wednesday, by Glen Saylor, a highway department employee.
  Local authorities learned the identity of the boy, Thursday evening when a 
sister, Miss Leah Putt arrived in Stoystown and positively identified the boy as 
her brother, Kenneth Norman Putt, who had left his home in Dudley, Tuesday, to 
visit another sister near Pittsburgh.
  Leah Putt learned of her brother's fate through the columns of a Huntingdon 
newspaper which gave an account of the finding of the body of an unidentified 
youth at Reel's Corner.  She contacted Coroner Sass by telephone, who 
corroborated the description of the youth as given in the newspaper.
  All evidence indicated that the lad met with death by some brutal method, and 
members of the Pennsylvania State Motor Police immediately started a search for 
the criminal.
  Coroner Dr. F. E. Sass was immediately notified and sped to Reel's Corner.  He 
said the boy was suffering from a laceration of the back, lacerations of both 
legs and multiple wounds.
  These wounds could not have caused the death, according to the coroner's 
report.  Dr. Sass arrived there approximately eight hours after the time of the 
accident.
  Death was due to exposure, not the wounds.  Evidence showed that he was 
carried off the highway, because marbles were strewn all over the highway and 
along the side of the cabin.
  Tiny spots of blood were found near his body by the motor police and the 
coroner, but there was not sufficient blood shed for the type of injuries he 
sustained.
  It was thought a hit-and-run driver was speeding along the road, hit the boy, 
picked up his body and transported it for several miles before leaving it in the 
woods.  The body was probably transported for some distance.
  A corner's jury on Saturday afternoon returned the verdict that the boy came 
to his death as the result of injuries inflicted in an auto accident some 
distance from where he was found and he was carried there while still living by 
person or persons unknown, death following.
  It was learned from his sister that the boy was a confirmed wanderer.  He was 
absent from school 53 days this term and had made several trips from Dudley to 
Pittsburgh during the recent months.

Meyersdale Republican, May 2, 1940