Search Continues For Murder Clues

Search Continues For Murder Clues

Officers In Manchester To Check Details

Sheriff John L. Osborn expressed doubt today that Miss Hazel Briggs, 38-year-old Detroit woman whose charred body was found last Friday in a farm dump beside M-11 near Manchester, was murdered near the spot where her body was found.

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Evilsizer, sr., and their son, Benjamin, jr., said they saw a woman they identified as Miss Briggs walking on M-11 in front of their home April 10, but a search yesterday failed to uncover anyone else who saw her on that date.

The Evilsizer home is about one-third of a mile east of the dump where the body was found. Miss Briggs was reported missing from the Manchester home of her mother, Mrs. Stella Briggs, on the afternoon of April 10.

Investigating officers returned to Manchester today to resume an intensive search for clues leading to the killer’s identity. Yesterday a house-to-house canvass was made over an area four miles square in and near Manchester.

Today officers planned to investigate the theft of 15 gallons of kerosene from a shed on the William Shafer farm one mile west of the dump on the Ray Trolz farm where the body was found.

A request to the board of supervisors to offer a reward for information leading to the killer's apprehension was to have been presented by Supervisor Charles Waltz, Manchester, yesterday, but in the heat of the discussion of a county health unit, the matter was not introduced.

Sheriff Osborn today issued a request that any information which may have even a remote bearing on the case be reported to his office.