Four Killed In Murder, Suicide on Reasnor Farm

SANFORD

Posted By: Mary Donahue (email)
Date: 6/1/2009 at 16:21:38

From the Jasper County Record, Newton, Jasper Co., Iowa, Thursday, 16 Mar 1933:

Four Killed In Murder, Suicide On Reasnor Farm

Father, Mother, Daughter
of Floyd Sanford
Family are Slain

Reasnor, Iowa – Special – Lucille Sanford, 144, who by a turn of fate left at 7:00 a.m. Friday for her school work at Monroe, now is an orphan.

Sometime between then and 5:00 o’clock Friday afternoon, estimated at 8:00 a.m. the other three members of her family were killed at their farm two miles southeast of here in what authorities termed an attack of a madman, who ended the carnage by shooting himself.

The dead, all victims of shots from a 12-gauge shotgun, were:

Floyd Sanford, 40, father, shot in back.
Bessie Lee Sanford, 38, mother, shot in face.
Rosilee Sanford, 12, daughter, shot in side of head.
Mahland Shipley, 60, hired hand, shot in chest.

Lucille, who rides back and forth to Monroe high school on a pony, had returned from school late Friday afternoon, placed her pony in the barn, and started to the house when she discovered her father, lying face downward, in the yard. Failing to rouse him, she screamed in fright, started for the house, but changed her mind, and dashed to the barn to get her pony and rode to the home of a neighbor, Mathis Vander Velden, a half a mile away, for help.
Notifies Officers

Mr. Vander Velden investigated the situation and notified Sheriff Earl Shields of Newton at once. County Attorney P. J. Siegers accompanied him to the scene of the shooting.

Further investigated revealed the bodies of Mrs. Sanford and her daughter, and of Mr. Shipley lying in the kitchen.

It is believed according to the theory of the affair as given by the officers, that Mr. Shipley, whom Lucille Sanford told Sheriff Shields, had been in bad humor Friday morning at the breakfast table, that he had shot the mother and daughter in the kitchen, then followed Mr. Sanford, whom it is thought was fleeing from the house, and shot him in the back.
Returns to Kitchen

Shipley, then is believed to have returned to the kitchen, placed the butt of the long shotgun against a sill, aimed it at his chest, and pushed the trigger with a long shingle that was found lying by his side.

Shots were heard by neighbors at 8:00 o’clock Friday morning, giving cause for the belief that the tragedy took place then.

Mr. Shipley had worked for the Sanford family about two years ago, helping with corn picking.

A few months ago, he returned to the Sanford home, and continued to stay from day to day. Lucille told authorities, it was learned that Mr. Shipley had become disgruntled over wages.
Coroner’s Jury Renders Verdict

Returning four separate verdicts Saturday afternoon, the coroner’s jury in the inquest into the triple slaying and suicide on the Floyd Sanford farm two miles southeast of Reasnor Friday morning decreed that Floyd Sanford, the father; Bessie Lee Sanford, the mother; and Rosilee Sanford, a daughter, met death by homicide, and that Mahland Shipley, the hired man who authorities decided committed the three murders, died by suicide.

The coroner’s jury was composed of L. D. McCall, T. A. Pickens, Jr., and Tracy Haines, all of Newton. County Corner E. A. McMurray of Newton was in charge of the inquest. Witnesses were Lucille Sanford, 14, the only surviving member of the family, Sheriff Earl Shields, Mathis Vander Velden, Alvin Tool and Lyle Tool.

The inquest was held at the Sanford home at 1:00 o’clock Saturday afternoon, although Miss Sanford was questioned at the neighboring Tool residence to avoid forcing her to testify in the house in which her parents and sister were slain.
Funeral services

Funeral services for the three members of the family were held Monday afternoon in Des Moines from the Church of the Open Bible, 507 East Grand avenue. Morgan’s Funeral home of Newton was in charge of the bodies.

The body of Shipley has been claimed by relatives in Missouri and taken there for burial.

Surviving relatives of the Sanford Family are Hoyt Sanford of Des Moines and Harry Sanford of Ankeny, brothers of Mr. Sanford; Mrs. Goldy Pratt of Des Moines and Hazel Daniels of Des Moines, sisters of Mr. Sanford; Mrs. Roland Crebs of near Prairie City, sister of Mrs. Sanford; Ritchie Stemper of near Prairie City, brother of Mrs. Sanford, and Frank Stemper of either Spicard, Mo., or Trenton, Mo., father of Mrs. Sanford.

Staying With Relatives
The remaining daughter, Lucille, is staying with her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Roland Crebs, who live about five miles southwest of Prairie City.

Mathis Vander Velden, a neighbor to the Sanfords, has been deputized by Sheriff Earl Shields to be in charge of the Sanford Farm and stock until such time as a guardian has been selected for Lucille. The guardian, authorities declared today, is expected to be selected soon and also is expected to be appointed administrator of the estate.

In her testimony, the girl told of coming home from school, finding the body of her father and riding to the neighboring Tool farm, where she told Mr. Tool that her father was hurt. Mr. Tool went to the farm, it was shown, found Mr. Sanford dead and sent his son, Lyle, to the Vander Velden farm, from where authorities were notified. Other witnesses testified as to finding the bodies o, Lyle Tool also telling of hearing shots at the Sanford farm and of seeing a man running from the barn toward the house, but thinking nothing of it as he supposed Mr. Sanford had shot a hawk.

Reconstruct Slayings
According to authorities Monday, Shipley is believed to have shot Mrs. Sanford and her daughter and then gone to the back porch, where, as Sanford was running to the house after hearing the shots, leveled the gun and shot Mr. Sanford, tearing away one elbow. Then, it is believed, Mr. Sanford turned and ran, followed by Shipley. Sanford, authorities said, was shot in the back at close range just as he reached the corn crib, the impact of the charges throwing him with such force that his teeth prints were left in the ground. Then, it is believed, Shipley went back into the kitchen, where he committed suicide by shooting himself with the .12 gauge pump gun with which he committed the murders.

The location of empty cartridges for the gun, it was declared, bore out the authorities’ reconstruction of the murders and suicide.

In her testimony, Lucille Sanford told how she had gone to school in Monroe at 7:00 o’clock that morning, thus saving her life, leaving before the rest of the family had vanished breakfast. Excerpts from her testimony are as follows:

Testimony Excerpts
Q: “Now had you noticed anything peculiar in the house or peculiar about anyone at your house?”
A: “No, but that man Shipley, and he stayed sullen about all the time.”
Q. “You didn’t notice that he was any more sullen Friday morning than at any other time?”
A. ‘No.”
…
Never Threatened
Q. “Had you ever heard the hired man threaten anyone over there?”
A. “No.
…
Q. “Had he ever done anything there at the house to irritate any of you?”
A. “Yes.”
Q. “What had he done?”
A. “Well, when he would be down at the barn he would get hay and straw in his pants and overall cuffs and empty it on mama’s rug. He would empty the tobacco on the rug and grind it up finer on the table. He would drink as high as six cups of coffee and set around hollering.”