Officers Press Probe Into Murder Of Coed
Officers Press Probe Into Murder Of Coed
Ann Arbor and Michigan State police today continued to track down leads surrounding the murder of University coed Jane Louise Mixer.
Ann Arbor Police Chief Walter E. Krasny said detectives are still looking for the person Miss Mixer had made arrangements with for a ride to her home in Muskegon. Krasny added that it has not yet been determined if the unknown man ever did pick her up.
He also added, "If I arranged to give a girl a ride and she never showed up, and then if I read that she had been killed, I would certainly go to the police immediately."
Miss Mixer, a 23-year-old law student who lived in the Law Quadrangle, was found Friday morning in the Denton Cemetery two miles east of Ypsilanti in Van Buren Township, Wayne County. A medical examination revealed she had died from two bullet wounds in the head. She also had a stocking wrapped around her neck.
The examination also indicated the girl was wounded fatally before the killer drove to the cemetery and placed the body on a gravesite.
Most of the students who live in the University Law Quadrangle are away for spring recess—and aren't due back until Monday. But the students who reside in the "C" section of the Law Club (dormitory), where Miss Mixer lived, described her as a serious, studious person who liked to talk about school but not about her personal life.
One student, Georgetta A. Wolff, a first-year law student from Detroit, lives on the first floor of the "C" section and became "pretty good friends" with Miss Mixer who lived on the third floor. They met at the start of school in August.
"She was a very, very bright girl who went to all the concert series and lectures at the University," she said. "I was in all the same classes and we were together quite a bit."
An honor graduate of the University's Literary College last year, Miss Mixer was described as one who would not volunteer answers in class, but who always had the right one when called by the professor.
Noel Anketell, a first-year law student, said Miss Mixer liked crossword puzzles. "Some men were focusing a television camera on one of our classes to test the camera for the law school. When it focused on Jane, she was doing a crossword puzzle."
Law School Dean Francis A. Allen said Miss Mixer was a "student in good standing" at the law school with a "fine undergraduate record."
Another professor, Arthur Miller, said she was a "fine lady, as far as I knew her."
Miss Wolff said she last talked to the dead girl on March 15—when the young woman related her plans for the following weekend—to go to her Muskegon home.
Miss Mixer's nighttimes were often spent walking to meet her boyfriend of several years, an economics graduate student from Ann Arbor.
Another first-year law student who says she knew Miss Mixer well is Mary P. Pace. Speaking from her home in Marquette, Miss Pace said all the girls from the section ate their meals together and the talk turned usually to school, although occasionally Miss Mixer showed concern over the student movements on campus.
"She was interested in seeing that black students got the things they wanted," she said. Agreeing that Miss Mixer was a "liberal," Miss Pace said the slain woman worked for the mayoral candidacy of Robert Harris by circulating petitions.
She said she saw Miss Mixer at 1 a.m. Thursday washing clothes. "It's kind of late," she joked. "Well, you know me," Miss Mixer replied.
JANE LOUISE MIXER