(Photo)

DON EHLERS, MISSING SINCE FRIDAY, A SUICIDE

Superintendent At Liberty, Nebraska Past School Year

BIZARRE DEATH TERMED A SUICIDE

A five-day search was ended Tuesday evening when Don Ehlers, son of Dr. D. R. Ehlers, of Blair, was found dead in a wheat field four miles south of Blair. He had been missing from the home of his parents since last Friday.

Authorities late Wednesday, after 24 hours of consideration of circumstances leading to the death, concluded that the death was by suicide. The act appeared to have been premeditated.

The office of Sheriff Rudy Fick reported receiving a call at 5:45 Tuesday evening from Emil Stender who owns a tract of land south of Blair. Stender reported that there was a car parked near a vacant set of buildings and that the car had been there several days. The car was locked.

Sheriff Fick and Deputy Claude Clements answered the call and were able to read the registration certificate through the locked window. They then searched all of the buildings of the farmstead carefully but found no trace of anyone. A search of the yards also bore no results.

Later, however, Mr. Stender called the attention of the men to something lying in a wheat field about 100 yards from the house. Examination proved it to be the body of Don. The body was lying face down and apparently been there since about the date of his disappearance.

Had Changed Clothing Don’s street clothes had been carefully removed and placed in his car. Along with them was his billfold containing over $40.

He had attired himself in a paratrooper’s uniform. Over this he had drawn a pair of sheepskin lined flying pants and over these a pair of fatigue pans. He wore the strap by a padlock, the other end was fastened in a similar manner but the padlock was not locked.

In a breast pocket he carried a partly emptied vial of chloroform. At his side he was wearing a long leather-sheated dagger.

Keys for the padlocks were found Wednesday on the floor of one of the rooms of the vacant house.

Doctors Perform Autopsy

An ambulance was immediately called and the body was taken to Blair where an autopsy was performed. Attending doctors stated that it was difficult to definitely establish that death was caused by the chloroform because of the length of time between death and discovery of the body.

Authorities were hesitant to call the death suicide because it was felt for a time that it would have been impossible to have administered the chloroform to the oxygen mask and to have locked the padlocks on the chain and still put on the boxing gloves. However, there was no evidence of foul play.

Attending physicians, in an effort to determine whether it was physically possible for a person to have done the deed singlehanded, procured boxing gloves and other equipment Wednesday afternoon. It was concluded that the feat was not impossible and doctors indicated that they would pronounce the death a suicide.

Was a Success in His Work

Sheriff Rudy Fick and County Attorney Roy Anderson, in attempting to find a motive for the death, drove to Liberty, Nebraska, south of Beatrice, Wednesday afternoon to discuss the case with authorities there. Don had been Superintendent of schools there the past year.

Residents of Liberty were shocked to learn of the death. It was found that he was regarded highly there and that his work during the school year had been exceptionally satisfactory. Mr. Anderson told The Enterprise, upon his return, that Don was a popular administrator and was well liked by the townspeople, his teaching staff and the pupils. No motive for his act could be given.

Masonic Funeral Today

Don is survived by his father, Dr. D. R. Ehlers and his step mother, and by Tom Ehlers and Arline Ehlers who are half brother and sister. Funeral services will be held this (Thursday) afternoon at the Methodist church at 2 o’clock with the Rev. Melvon Ireland conducting the service. Burial under the direction of the Bendorf Funeral Home will be made in the Cedar Law Cemetery in Council Bluffs. Blair Masons will participate in the services at the cemetery.

Enterprise 24 June 1954

Ehlers Case Is Reopened By Safety Patrol

Will Check Details Of Apparent Death By Suicide

At the request of Dr. D. R. Ehlers, father of Donald Ehlers whose body was found in a field south of Blair three weeks ago, the Nebraska State Safety Patrol will conduct an inquiry into circumstances surrounding the youth’s death.

Young Ehlers, when found, was dressed in a paratrooper’s uniform, was wearing boxing gloves and football hip and shoulder pads and was wearing a commercial type nasal filter which bore a pad apparently soaked with chlorophorm. He had been dead for nearly five days when found.

Washington County Sheriff Rudy Fick and Washington County Attorney Roy I. Anderson, as well as Dr. R. F. Sievers, examining physician, have all pronounced the case a suicide. However, parents of the youth have never been reconciled to the suicide decree and Dr. Ehlers asked the Safety Patrol to make an investigation of circumstances surrounding the case.

Reports are being prepared by County Attorney Roy I. Anderson at this time. Lt. V. W. Buyler of the Nebraska Safety Patrol, spent some time here last week and expects to send other men here as soon as the reports are completed.

Note: Since the actual death date was not given, the news article date was used.

Pilot Tribune Thursday, 3 June 1954

(Photo: Caption – Deputy Sheriff Claude Clements holds a chain link with which Donald Ehlers’ wrists were bound together when his body was found, also a knife found on the body.)

(Photo Don Ehlers)

MYSTERY SURROUNDS EHLER

Was it Suicide, Murder?

Don Ehlers, 26, Found Dead in Field; Chloroform Suspected

WAS CLAD IN FULL-SCALE PARATROOPER REGALIA

The body of Donald R. Ehlers, 26, son of a prominent Blair family, who had been missing from his home since Friday, was found at dusk Tuesday in a field south of Blair, clad in a weird costume resembling that a paratroop soldier dons when leaping out of a plane for ground combat.

Ehlers’ wrists were tied together with a link or two of automobile chain, a padlock at one side locked and one on the other arm not locked. A length of stout cord was tied around the wrists, and the hands were encased in boxing gloves. A mask covered his face, and he wore helmet and goggles.

A two-ounce bottle still containing a half-ounce of chloroform was found nearby.

Young Ehlers, who until May was superintendent of the school at Liberty, Nebr. was the son of Dr. D. R. Ehlers, Blair dentist, and the stepson of Mrs. Ehlers.

He had been at his parents’ home since school closed at Liberty.

Young Ehlers, his father said, had never seemed in better spirits. He had planned to enroll at the University of Nebraska soon to continue work for his master’s degree during the summer—and on Saturday, the day after he mysteriously dropped out of sight, a receipt came telling that he had paid in advance for his board and room.

Murder or Suicide?

Was it murder—as many people, including the Ehlers family, suspect—or suicide?

It was a hard question to answer last night as the distraught family and a multitude of friends tried to recover from the shock of the tragic news.

County officials and physicians who investigated were guarded in their opinions, under the unusual circumstances, but the check went on.

As reconstructed, the story of young Ehlers’ recent activities and background was about as follows:

The unmarried youth, a graduate of Blair High School who later attended Dana College, had enjoyed a successful year as head of the Liberty School. He had received a contract to serve in a similar capacity the coming year at Dunning at a considerable increase in pay.

He was an Army infantry veteran, having served two years—most of it in Japan—recently as a desk clerk, with a corporal’s rating. He had admitted he did not like Army service but that he did his duty.

His outlook was never more cheerful than this spring, his father said yesterday. He had a car, paid for, plus almost $800 in the bank and a better job coming up. Also, he was picking up some extra money by painting a house here while awaiting summer school. He had just ordered a new suit from a Blair store.

The youth had only a week or two ago had his father, a dentist, pull four of his upper front teeth for replacement with a bridge. He had worried about his appearance with what he considered “buck teeth.”

“Why,” asked Dr. Ehlers yesterday, “should my boy have a dental bridge put in and then within a week do away with himself?”

Left on Friday

Late Friday afternoon, Mrs. Ehlers said, Don came home, visited with her and his aunt, who was a guest, and seemed quite cheerful. Then he went to take a shower and change to his street clothes. Upon his return from this, he said he wouldn’t be home for supper and not to wait up for him.

That was the last seen of him.

Late Tuesday Emil Stender of south of Blair, south of the McCarthy School, phoned the sheriff’s office to report that a car had been parked for some time at his farm, near an abandoned farm house.

Sheriff Rudy Fick and Deputy Sheriff Claude Clements went to the scene. They and Mr. Stender found a pile of clothes inside the locked car. At about dusk, the body of young Ehlers was found some 150 yards distant in a field, clad in the paratroop-jumper outfit. He had apparently been dead most of the weekend.

There were no notes or other indications of suicide.

The case has baffled authorities since then.

Circumstances such as his wrists being bound together and boxing gloves covering his hands offered a profound puzzle.

The official preliminary investigation was the theory that death was caused by chloroform. The mask over his face actually had been used in reverse. It was intended as a gas mask, but the openings were stuffed with chloroform-saturated batts of cloth instead of the ingredient ordinarily placed there to combat possible chemical gases encountered in warfare.

Where young Ehlers himself might have secured such a uniform and equipment, since he had been in the airborne branch of service, remained a mystery as of last night.

His parents were certain he had never had such a uniform and equipment at home.

Specimens from young Ehlers’ body have been sent to University Hospital in Omaha for verification or denial that death was caused by chloroform poisoning.

Meanwhile it is announced that the funeral rites will be held this (Thursday) afternoon at 2 o’clock at First Methodist Church. Burial will be in Cedar Lawn Cemetery at Council Bluffs.

Donald is survived by his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Ehlers: a younger brother, Tom, a star athlete at Blair High: and a sister, Arlene.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~