Maude Gilbert

THINK BODY OF GIRL IS IN CANAL

FIND CLOTHING BUT BODY NOT BEEN LOCATED

Canal’s Victim Believed to Be Miss Maude Gilbert From Clothing and
Kodak Pictures Recovered – Machine Found in Canal.

Miss Maude Gilbert, former order clerk of the Southern Utilities corporation is believed to have been drowned in an Essex touring car found this morning in the Tamiami Trail canal at a point about three-quarters of a mile west of the entrance to the trail and just a short distance beyond the place where the trail is widened in front of Glademoor subdivision.

The car was located in the canal by police and deputy sheriffs at 10 o’clock this morning. The car was completely covered by water and was standing upright on its wheels. Detectives Harry Morris and R. H. Starling, who dove under the water succeeded in bringing up a girl’s corset, chemise, a handbag containing a memorandum book, money and Kodak views of a young woman identified as being Miss Gilbert, but the body itself had not been located when Constable Charles Strothman was sent to Miami at 10:30 o’clock to get an automobile derrick to remove the machine from the water.

It is believed that the body may have floated clear of the machine or be pinned beneath it.

Mystery Shrouds Tragedy

Mystery surrounds the affair because of the fact that the undergarments were found free in the car. It was not thought by the searchers that the woman would have removed these garments to save herself by swimming if she were drowning.

The first intimation of a possible tragedy was received by the authorities about 8 o’clock this morning when E. F. White, in charge of the ice cream department at the Southern Utilities corporation, reported to the police station that an Essex touring car in which he was riding last night with Miss Gilbert had gone into the Tamiami Trail canal at a point about eight miles from Miami late last night and that he believed the young woman was drowned in the machine.

Mr. White declared to the police that he had succeeded in freeing himself from the machine when it went into the canal and swam around for some time in a vain effort to locate his companion, after which he swam across the canal, made his way up the bank and staggered to the nearest house, near the Curtiss aviation field, and got a farmer whom he found there to bring him to Miami in a truck. He said he arrived in Miami about daylight and sent word to the station as to the accident, then changed his clothes and went down to the station himself.

On account of the clean condition of White’s clothes, his story was discredited at first by the police, but Motorcycle Policemen Beavers and Mitchell were sent out to the trail to try and locate the missing machine if possible to confirm the man’s story.

Questioned by Police

White was taken to the sheriff’s office by Policeman Beavers and turned over to Chief Deputy Jack Gay, who questioned him closely.

The man was so insistent that there had been an accident, pointing out his scratched hands as evidence, that a posse was quickly organized consisting of Deputies Gay and Kirby Clark, Detectives Starling, Morris and C. G. Pratt and a Metropolis reporter, who accompanied White in two machines to the scene of the supposed tragedy.

On arriving at a point just west of where the trail is widened in front of Glademoor, White declared that he believed it to be the spot.

Members of the party alighted and closely examined the roadway for possible signs of where a machine had left the trail. There was one place where weeds had apparently been broken down by a machine but the outer bank showed no signs of having been broken down.

Machine Found Upright

While the spot was being examined, Detective Pratt, who had gone a slight distance farther west, yelled that he had found a man’s straw hat floating in the canal. White identified the hat as being his.

In the meantime, Detective Morris with a large stone tied to the end of a rope was throwing it into the canal to drag for the machine from the bank. A few minutes later he yelled, “The machine is here.”

Quickly stripping off their clothes Detectives Morris and Starling then swam into the water and located the machine which was found to be upright. Diving into the water, they located the articles of women’s wearing apparel.

Said Girl Was Driving

White said that shortly before 11 o’clock last night he was driving down town to get something to eat, when at a point on West Flagler street near old Avenue O or P, he saw Miss Gilbert, whom he knew, standing on a corner. Driving over to her side of the road he asked her what she was doing there. She replied that she was waiting for a jitney to take her down town. White then invited her to get into his machine, which she did. While they were driving along, according to White’s story, Miss Gilbert told him that she was learning to drive a car and asked if she might drive his. He answered in the affirmative and she took the wheel.

“We drove out toward S. W. Eighth street” (Twentieth avenue), continued White, “and started to drive out the Tamiami trail way. We were about eight miles from town when the next thing I knew the car [suddenly] left the side of the road with Miss Gilbert still driving, and [plunged] into the water. I got clear in some way and swam around trying

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to locate her but it was so dark I could see nothing. I called her name but received no answer. I did not hear her utter a word from the time we left the road. I stayed in the vicinity for 30 or 40 minutes before searching for a farm house.”

Came Here Last Fall

Miss Gilbert was a woman of about 29 years of age and came to Miami to reside in October, 1920. Since that time she has made her home at the residence of Earl B. Trexler, 29 N. E. Twentythird street. Off and on she has been employed at the Southern Utilities, Inc., having been there the last two weeks in June filling in a vacancy.

The girl recently returned from a visit with her two brothers – Earnest and Harvey Gilbert – in Bridgeport, Conn., and was planning to return there in the fall to make her home with them. Neither of her parents are living.