Lizzie McDyer
Cincinnati Enquirer, 10 December 1905, page 8
MELBOURNE THE SCENE OF FRIGHTFUL DOUBLE TRAGEDY
Robert McDyer, aged 23, shot and almost instantly killed his
wife, Lizzie McDyer, age 17, at their home in Melbourne, Ky. yesterday afternoon
and then committed suicide.
A 12-gauge shotgun was the instrument of death and the scene of the double tragedy was in the couple's room on the second floor of the two-story frame house occupied by William Ellison, employed at the Melbourne Carriage Works. The terrible tragedy was prompted by domestic troubles, as letters left by the husband indicate.
The preparations made by McDyer for sending both himself and wife into eternity were awful in the precision and care of the arrangements. He even cut the paper shells in half so that the shot would be fired in a compact mass, thus making its effect more deadly. In killing himself he tied one end of a clothesline on to the iron bedstead. The other he attached to the trigger of his shotgun. He then placed the muzzle of the gun to his breast and walked from the bed, thus causing the trigger to be pulled.
WIFE LEFT HOME
McDyer and his wife, formerly Miss Lizzie Ochling, have been married a year and three months. They have no children. It is said in the letters left by McDyer that his wife's sister had come between them and his wife had decided to come to the city. She left home Friday morning. Her husband, who had been employed on a sand digger, came to the house of his mother, about one and one half miles below Glenn Park, Friday afternoon.
He told her that he and his wife had quarreled, that she had left and he would make his home with her. Yesterday morning Mrs. McDyer came along the road and husband and wife talked for some time. At the conclusion of the conference, McDyer came into his mother's house and told his brother he would take the latter's shotgun, accompany his wife to Melbourne and hunt on the return trip.
HEARD A SHOT
That is the last time the couple were seen alive. From 12:30 to 3 pm yesterday Mrs. Ellison heard the couple talking and heard McDyer whistling several popular airs. At about the latter hour she head the report of a shotgun. She ran over to the carriage factory, where her husband was at work, about three squares away. Mrs. Ellison and her husband returned together and attempted to open the door to McDyers's apartments. They found that a heavy dresser had been moved against the door, but managed to shove it to one side.
McDyer was lying on the floor in the middle of the room, with a gaping would about an inch in diameter below the heart. He was attired in an undershirt, trousers and socks.
Mrs. McDyer had crawled under the bed. The heavy charge of shot had almost torn the left arm fro the socket and part of the load had also entered the left breast, igniting the dress. Mrs. McDyer was still breathing when Mr. and Mrs. Ellison found her, but she expired before the arrival of Dr. Pinguely.