Champaign, Ill., Nov. 18 — Police were without any definite clues today to the slaying of Mary Catherine Elliott, 23-year old Decatur divorcée, whose body, the skull crushed, was found Saturday night in a hedge in the north residential district.
Officers found the body after an anonymous telephone caller notified police a girl was “lying in the bushes.” Police Chief Clyde Davis said that the attractive Miss Elliott, a salesgirl in a local dress shop, had been killed with a brick and assaulted criminally. A blood-stained brick was found about 60 feet from the body.
Also near her body, which was clad in a fur coat, police found her shoes and clothing. Her underclothing had been torn.
Miss Elliott, who had been working here for about five weeks, had been seen about 10 p.m. Saturday in a downtown drug store. Florence Legue, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Legue, with whom Miss Elliott resided, said she had told her she was to meet a young man who had promised to drive her to Decatur. He failed to keep the appointment, however, Miss Legue said and Miss Elliott left the drug store for the Legue home and planned to go to her home in Decatur later Saturday night.
Police believe the attack occurred while Miss Elliott was enroute to the Legue home.
Her death resulted from “multiple skull fractures, apparently inflicted by a blunt instrument,” said Drs. John Seigling of Urbana and J. R. Ingram of Champaign, who performed an autopsy.
Before coming here, Miss Elliott lived with her mother and her stepfather, R. J. Sickasuss, in Decatur. Police said they had learned that Miss Elliott was divorced about a year ago from Charles “Bud” Fitch of Peoria.
Mary Catherine Elliott lived in Canton about two years ago. At that time she was the wife of Charles Fitch, who was manager of the Miller Jones shoe store.
Current Obituaries in the Astoria South Fulton Argus