Livengood-Telyea Murder Trial, Installment # 3

LIVENGOOD, TELYEA, TELLYEA

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 3/25/2007 at 21:14:22

The DECORAH REPUBLIC
Decorah, Iowa, Thursday, July 11, 1861

THE TELLYEA MURDER CASE REVIVED!!

TELLYEA'S REMAINS DISCOVERED

This case, which all thought was ended, bids fair to again agitate the county. The remains of what is supposed to be Charley Tellyea were found in Silver Creek, on Tuesday last! Intelligence was immediately brought to Decorah, and Bloomfield started in pursuit of Mrs. Tellyea and John Livengood.

The manner in which the body was discovered is as follows: Two boys from Bluffton were out searching for cows, and saw the body lying in the water. They recognized the body as Tellyea's by the moccasins on the feet, and the parts of the dress visible. Immediately they gave the alarm, and aroused the people. The body was partly drawn out of the water, and left in that condition to await a coroner's inquest. The head and nearly all the body was enveloped in a blanket, around which a rope was firmly bound. By the last advices we received before going to press, the blanket had not been unbound, and the body had only been recognized by the clothes, and moccasins, which were like those he usually wore, and such as he had on when last seen alive.

Silver Creek, where the body was found, is a small stream; perhaps five miles long, rising near Burr Oak Village, and emptying into the Iowa, in Section 10, Bluffton township.

The body was found about twenty rods from the mouth of the creek, and about the same distance, perhaps less, north of the road running from the State road to Bluffton village.

P.S. -- We learn at a late hour that a coroner's inquest has been held over the body and that the remains are identified as those of Tellyea. The head was badly broken and looked as though it had been done with an axe. One large hole was found and the brains nearly all gone.

Livengood and Mrs. Tellyea are supposed to be in the neighborhood of Rushford, Minnesota, and thither the officers have gone.