For six days, 3-year-old Billy Huffstickle remained trapped inside a freezing Indiana farmhouse with the bodies of his murdered aunt and uncle.
Weak from hunger, thirst, and exposure, the child survived on crackers, jelly, and a piece of apple pie shared with his small poodle, Lollie. When rescuers finally entered the house, they found Billy asleep beside his aunt’s body, still waiting for her to wake up.
As investigators tried to understand what had happened, the bewildered child repeated one haunting detail: before the house fell silent, a strange woman had been there.
Dual Murder Clue Points to Woman
MUNCIE, Indiana. — “Mama, there was a woman in Uncle Bill’s house. I thought it was you and I cried. The lady went upstairs to get me some jelly.”
This statement, made today by 3-year-old “Billy” Huffstickle, implicates a woman in the murder of William G. Shaeffer, 39, and his wife, Susie, 39, whose hatchet-hacked bodies were found at their farm home twelve miles south of here Tuesday.
Prattling throughout the morning, the child repeated his statements. He was unable, however, to give any description of the woman.
“Mama, I thought it was you. Who was it?” He said, bewilderingly.
The child, weak from hunger, thirst, and cold, was unable to relate any incident leading up to the slaying of his uncle and aunt.
For six days and six nights, “Billy” and his poodle dog, “Lollie,” lived through an unknown torture. Their food, shared between them, apparently consisted of crackers, a glass of jelly, and a piece of apple pie. The boy was unable to obtain any water.
Chickens Found Dead in Coop
Four chickens, cooped up in the kitchen of the three room house, had starved to death. Other chickens, pigs, and stock in the barn lot were dying of starvation and thirst.
“Billy,” when rescued from the “house of torture” clad only in his underwear, was asleep on the death bed, cuddled close to Mrs. Shaeffer’s body. His feet were in a pool of blood. The dog, faithful to his young master, was lying beside the bed.
“I found jelly and pie,” the boy said after he had been taken to the home of Howard Brown, farmer neighbor. “Lollie and I ate it all up and there wasn’t any more. We was hungry, we was. I cried for mama, but she didn’t come.”
The child was suffering from exposure. His feet were blue from the cold. The house was unheated.
“Aunt Susie went to sleep and wouldn’t wake up,” was all the child would say for hours. “Uncle Bill was gone. I couldn’t find him.”
“Did you see anyone hit Aunt Susie?” The child was asked.
“Aunt Susie was asleep,” came the answer.
“Where was Uncle Bill? Was he in the house?”
“Uncle Bill was gone. He didn’t come home.”
“Did you see any one else besides the lady that gave you jelly?”
“I cried for mama,” was his reply.
Further questioning caused the boy to weep.
With his swollen feet swathed in bandages to overcome long exposure to freezing weather in an unheated house and with his lips cracked and blistered from lack of water and food, the boy whimpered from the pain even in his sleep. His life is not yet beyond the reach of the destroyer pneumonia. If he recovers he will become the most remarkable figure in one of Indiana’s most astounding double murders.
As near as can be gathered from the boy’s statements he tried repeatedly to arouse “Aunt Sue” the morning after the crime. He went into the kitchen and found some crackers on a shelf. He played with his woolly white dog and when “Lollie” begged for crackers he gave him some.
Climbs Into Bed With Dead Aunt
Then is become dark and the boy climbed in bed again with “Aunt Sue,” but she wouldn’t wake up. And his uncle was not there.
“Billy” cried and cried and became sick. He called “mama.” Nobody came. Many autos passed near the house. The little fellow could see them from the bed in which was the evidence of tragedy too deep for the waning intelligence of a sick and starving child. He was a prisoner waiting, waiting, waiting, for his father and mother.
“Billy” was a favorite of his aunt and on leaving to return to their farm house, Mrs. Shaeffer begged that she be permitted to take “Billy” along. He always had such good times at his “Aunt Sue’s” house that consent was given readily for him to go with the Shaeffers.
“Billy” is the son of Mr. And Mrs. William Huffstickle. Mrs. Huffstickle said Mrs. Shaeffer came to her home Dec. 6 and asked to take the child home with her, promising to return him the following Saturday. The mother became alarmed when her son did not come home on time.
Source: The Indianapolis Times. Indianapolis, Ind. December 13, 1922.
