DEATH OF BOY.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1924, Page 4

DEATH OF BOY.

COMPANIONS’ SECRECY' SUBSEQUENT CONFESSION. New York, Nov. 30. Four young boys have confessed that they hid the body of their chum Ernest Schwer, aged 13 years, after he had been accidentally shot and killed 10 I days ago. After three of them had , been trapped- in contradictory statements on Friday night, the fourth boy j broke down and led detectives to an j ash dump, where the body of the lad schwer was found under a pile of brush ! with a ibullet wound, in the temple. I 10 days, while police, firemen, I 'v-.. -«:outs and army aeroplanes searched. £or the missing boy, his companions adhered 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 tlie*b(»ys were taken to the place where they said they had parted from and were asked which way he had gone. One pointed in one directtion and one in another direction. Under threat of arrest, the boys then the story of the accidental shoot- ! ing, which their two companions later I corrroborated. They said that they had all gone into the swamp with a rifle, fend while taking turns in shooting one of them discharged the gun before he intended to and the bullet .strnek Schwer in the head. The boys are:—• Arthur and H'arbkl Meighan, aged 12 fend 11 years respectively; Adam Rotunda, 12; and . Charles Hirschfleld, 14. Terrified by the thought of the pos-

sible 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.