Mother Of Four Found Slain

Roomer Surrenders And Says Gun Fired During 'Struggle' Mrs. Zella McConnell Shot Ten Times In Home On Lexington Rd.; Daughters Tell Of Quarrels Mrs. Zella McConnell, 37-year-old divorcee, was found dead in her home, 1675 Lexington Rd., at 8:45 last night, shot ten times. Ivan Love, 34, a roomer at the home since the two met at a dance in Hamburg shortly before Christmas, surrendered two hours later. He made what questioning officers called "partial admissions" regarding the murder of the twice-divorced mother of four children. Officers said Love admitted today the shooting "occurred during a struggle" and that Mrs. McConnell "didn't have her hand on the trigger" but "may have had her hand on the gun" when the trigger was pulled. He also was said to have admitted he "knew she was shot but didn't know she was dead" when he left the house. Earlier this morning he had shouted at Prosecutor Douglas K. Reading, "I'm no killer. I loved her." Eight shots struck Mrs. McConnell in the stomach, one in the chest and one in the arm. An 11th bullet was embedded in a door casing. Love admitted owning the murder weapon, a .22 calibre automatic rifle, which officers found later in his truck. Mrs. McConnell, an employe at the King-Seeley Corp., was killed two hours after she had driven to Ann Arbor to tell sheriff's officers that Love had threatened her. Velma Hall, 17-year-old daughter of the murdered woman by her first husband, said that during an argument Friday afternoon she heard Love shout angrily, "If I can't have you, no one can." Ivan Love surrendered at 10:45 p.m. at the Redford state police post at the urgings of his brother, Kenneth, a Brighton area grocer. Telephoned Brother Kenneth said Ivan had telephoned him about 10:15 and told him, "Zella is gone." Fearing "something was wrong," Kenneth told officers, he urged and finally persuaded Ivan to meet him on US-16 near Novi. There, Ivan got in Kenneth's car, and they started driving toward Detroit, the latter urging Ivan to give himself up. Velma found her mother's body on the floor of the dining room when she and her two sisters - Millie, 20, and Jennie, 14 - and the victim's first husband, Howard Hall, 46, of Jackson, returned from an Ann Arbor movie. A hunting knife, with which the daughters said, Love had threatened her during a quarrel Thursday, was lying on the kitchen floor. There were no knife wounds on the victim. Says They Argued Frequently Jennie Hall told officers her mother and Love had argued frequently lately over Mrs. McConnell's refusal to marry him. Yesterday, the girl said, her mother had refused to go to Detroit with Love and had ordered him to move out of the house. She said her mother had told the roomer, "I want to stay single because my first two marriages didn't work out." Love had stomped our angrily, Jennie related. At that time, Mrs. McConnell discovered that the hunting knife she had wrested from Love during Thursday's quarrel was missing from the glove compartment of her car where she had put it. Events Described Jennie told sheriff's deputies events prior to the murder happened in this sequence: Howard Hall, the girls' father who was divorced from Mrs. McConnell in 1938, arrived at about 5 o'clock on one of his occasional visits to take the girls to dinner and a movie in Ann Arbor. On their way into the city, they saw Love's stake truck heading toward the Lexington Rd. home, a mile northeast of Ann Arbor and a block south of Plymouth Rd., and returned to see "if everything was all right." Velma, who entered the house on the pretext of having forgotten her purse, said she saw Love attempting to block her mother in the bedroom. At that time, Mrs. McConnell told the roomer, "Get out and take your clothes." Love then loaded several suitcases on his truck with the help of Hall and the girls. Headed For Ann Arbor Soon after, the roomer, Mrs. McConnell, and Hall and the girls drove toward Ann Arbor in their own cars. Hall said he saw Love signal Mrs. McConnell to stop at a stoplight, but the divorcee continued to the county jail, where she told officers she was "afraid I will be beat up" by Love because she had ordered him from the house. The Hall party went to a restaurant and then to a movie. Undersheriff George L. Randel said he and Deputy Gregory Katopodis accompanied Mrs. McConnell back to her home and put the rest of Love's clothing on a porch railing. They left when she assured them she would lock herself in and felt "safe." The officers said they saw her driving away from the home as they left, however. She apparently intended to eat and visit a friend in Ann Arbor, the daughters said. They saw her driving north on S. State St. about 8 o'clock when they came out of a campus theater. Phone 'Busy' Velma Hall and later her father tried to telephone Mrs. McConnell about 8:15 "just to be sure everything was all right," but received a busy dial sound. Officers later said this probably meant the telephone line already had been cut. Randel said he figured Mrs. McConnell arrived home about that time and locked herself in. He said he believed Love, returning before her and enraged at finding his clothes on the porch, cut the outside telephone line and lay in wait for her. He then smashed a glass door panel, let himself in, and overpowered the woman, Randel figured. According to Prosecutor Reading, one neighbor said she saw Love's red truck parked near the McConnell home about 8:30 and a second said he heard one which sounded like Love's driving away at about that time. None of the neighbors saw Love drive away, however, and no one heard the shots or any outcry. Mrs. McConnell, a native of Brookfield, near Charlotte, came to Ann Arbor about 10 years ago to work at the King-Seeley plant. The family first lived at 430 S. Fourth Ave., moving to Lexington Rd. about eight years ago. She was divorced from her second husband, Myron McConnell, who is said to be living in Muskegon, in 1948. Besides her three daughters, she leaves a son, Edward, 18, a soldier in Japan; her father, Dan Gettys, a brother, George, and a sister, Mrs. Wealthy Castor, all of Brookfield. The accused killer is a former employe of a Detroit steel-plating firm. He has recently been engaged in the hauling business in the Ann Arbor area. Love reportedly has a wife and two children living in Dexter.