Missing Watches Sought As Clue In Milan Mystery

Missing Watches Sought As Clue In Milan Mystery

MILAN — Two expensive watches which police believe Floyd Amos, 58-year-old Milan junk dealer, was wearing when he was murdered Aug. 31 became the object of a search by state police and sheriff’s officers today.

Sgt. Thor Person of the Ypsilanti state police post said that it was learned for the first time yesterday that Amos possessed the two watches. They were not listed among the effects found in his clothes or in Amos’ house, however after the junk dealer was found at his home dead with a bullet in his brain.

Also missing were two purses which Amos habitually carried and which, his friends told police, usually contained several hundred dollars. The loss of the two purses first led police to believe that Amos had been murdered rather than having committed suicide.

Person said that officers were scouring pawnships and other stores for the missing watches, on the theory that their discovery would be the first real step towards solving the 12-day-old case. He described the watches as an open-faced Hamilton, white-gold, 21-jewel watch and a 17-jewel open-faced Elgin.

Meanwhile, he said, officers were questioning more persons in and around Milan in their efforts to learn more of the personal life of the murdered widower.

Police had narrowed to two the list of persons sought for questioning in the case. The two, one a parolee and the other an escapee from southern Michigan prison, were sentenced in 1943 for robbing Amos’ house. State police also questioned a Milan man arrested in Jackson for driving with improper license plates, but have concluded, Person said, that the man had no connection with Amos’ death.