DEATH OF A BOY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18888, 10 December 1924, Page 10

DEATH OF A BOY.

COMPANIONS' SECRECY.

SUBSEQUENT CONFESSION.

NEW YOKE. Nov. 30.

Four young boys have confessed , that they, hid the bodv of their chum Ernest Schwer, aged 13 years, after' ho hr.d been accidentally shot, and killed 10 days ago. After three of them had been trapped in contradictory statements on Friday night, the . fourth boy broke down and led detectiver to an ash dump, where the body of the lad Schwer was found under a pita of .brush with a bullet wound , in ..the temple. ' • For 10 days, while police, ' firemen, boy scouts and army aeroplanes searched for the missing boy, his companions ad-

hered to 'the story that they had last

seen him in the swamp near his home hunting musk rats. They even. assisted in the. search. ... But on Friday night two of the boys were taken to the place .where they said, they had parted from.

Schwer, and were 'asked which way he. had;.gone.. One pointed in .one direc-

.tion and one in another, direction. Under threat of ."arrest/ the .boys then told . the story of the accidental shooting, .which .their two companions later

corroborated. They said that they had all gone into the swamp with. a rifle, and . while taking turns in shooting .one of them discharged ..the -gun before he intended- :to V and : the ' bullet ' struck Schwer in the- head. The •' boys aro: Arthur" and Harold .. Meighan, aged 12 and; 31-. years respectively: Adam lioturic'a, 12; and Charles ' Kirschfield, 14. '

Terrified by ' the thought of the possible consequences of the accident, the four boys said they dragged Schwer to the ash dump, pulled his cap over his face, tossed some brush over the body, and then concocted the tale they subsequently told.