FARMERS BODY FOUND AT BOTTOM OF WELL

Bethany, MO March 12-Weighted with a sack of cement and with the hands bound tightly together with wire, the body of Seth Stanley, 50, a well-known farmer and business man of Bethany, was found early Thursday morning at the bottom of a well located at the rear of his marble and granite works here. Except for scratches on the face, there were no other marks on the body. Stanley's hat and coat were found at the edge of the well. When last seen Wednesday evening, Stanley had returned from the depot, where he was to have met a salesman from Maryville,MO, who did not arrive, and gone to his shop where he had parked his car. He did not return home, and the search was instituted for him Thursday morning. When the coat and hat were found searchers looked in the well and perceived the body under the water at the bottom. Grappling hooks were secured and the body was brought to the surface. A coroner's jury Thursday afternoon returned a verdict of suicide, but Stanley's friends declare that he was not the man to have killed himself, and they believe he was the victim (of murder or foul play?) from Crime Scene Investigation: page 119. "bound hands and feet are found in some suicides... family listed from Find-a-Grave: Family Members Parents Photo John Ellis Stanley 1827–1915 Photo Rebecca Lakey Stanley 1835–1905 Spouse Photo Nannie Agnes Higdon Stanley 1877–1972 Siblings Photo Abraham Lakey Stanley 1857–1910 Photo Nancy Melissa Stanley Murphy 1858–1898 Photo Marion E. Stanley 1863–1946 Mary A. Stanley Ray 1868–1887 Photo Minnie Hester Stanley Hudson 1871–1956 Photo Amey Ellen Stanley Griffin 1872–1944 Eva Lenora Stanley Smith 1875–1915