Mysterious murder in Eldorado Canyon: Woman Killed with Shotgun
In late January of 1919, a woman named Maude Douglas was found murdered in the family’s tent in Nelson, Eldorado Canyon. Once again, the elusive and never caught renegade Queho was prime suspect.
Quintus Hopper of Nevada, published in January 2022, is a historical novel that follows the epic and peculiar life of a frontier newspaper typesetter. As part of my research I made extensive use of newspaper archives and, in this series, I’ll share some of my often surprising findings. Here are history, commentaries and contemporary newspaper articles as they relate to the novel. This time a look at the next chapter in the epic three-decades-long hunt for the renegade Queho.
Here are the earlier articles about incredible story of Queho:
Since Queho’s supposed killing spree in 1911, there had been numerous reports of sightings, rumors, accusations, and even announcements of his death. In late January of 1919, Queho was in the headlines once again. A woman named Maude Douglas had been murdered in the family’s tent in Nelson, Eldorado Canyon.
Interestingly, even though tracks were found that indicated Queho’s presence, newspapers no longer instantly condemned Queho. Instead, the article of the Las Vegas Age detailed several possibilities, among them Queho, two missing miners, and a man named Roberts from across the California border. Queho was seen as an unlikely culprit at first, because the circumstances pointed to the murderer as a starved man – and Queho had proven to live out the wilderness, for years and years, just fine. The missing miners were later found dead.
The man named Roberts has his own curious tale. What is described in below article, that Roberts killed his wife, tried to burn her body, and ran away with a baby, soon proved entirely false. What happened is worth mentioning, even if it only tangentially touches on the story of Queho. The story of the man named Roberts, printed in El Centro’s Imperial Valley Press, was simply a tale of infidelity, turned and twisted, by inept and overeager police and press, into a monumental case of villainy. The first of the headlines read, ‘Young Woman’s Body Burned to a Crisp.’ Just four days later the name of both murderer and victim were reported: Oliver Roberts had murdered his wife, possibly cut her throat and burned her while she was still alive.
According to reports, the couple had been seen with their little child, had rented a horse and buggy and then vanished. It was now feared that the madman would also murder the child. Another two days passed before it was announced that Oliver Roberts was actually a Harry Ellis and that the victim was a certain Mary Watkins. Harry Ellis had disappeared on his wife and their two children, just as Mary Watkins – whose husband was still in France for the purposes of war and peace – had vanished with her little daughter.
By the middle of February, the El Centro paper explained that the victim’s charred body was also not that of Mrs. Watkins – because Mrs. Watkins had informed them that she was very much alive in El Paso, Texas, where Harry Ellis had left her. The sheriff then confirmed that neither was Mrs. Watkins the victim, nor was Mr. Ellis still considered a murderer. The theory that a California man had come to Eldorado Canyon, starved and crazed, and there murdering Maude Douglas, had been farfetched from the start, and it was discounted even before the details of the Ellis/Watkins affair had unfolded – because two more victims had been discovered.
With Roberts and the dead prospectors stricken off the list of possible suspects, Queho was, once again, suspect number one – and it didn’t take long for everyone to lay at his feet not only the murder of Maude Douglas, but also those of the prospectors.
July 07, 1919
Las Vegas Age, Las Vegas, Nevada
MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN ELDORADO CANYON
Woman Killed with Shotgun
When Awakened by Noise in the Kitchen. On the night of Tuesday, January 21st, Mrs. Maude J. Douglas, wife of Arvin J. Douglas, was shot and killed in her home at the Techatticup mine in the Eldorado Canyon, by a mysterious assassin.
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas came recently from Yuma, Arizona, with their four children, the eldest a boy of 14. Mr. Douglas got work at the Techatticup mine and the family occupied a three-room tent house there. After the death of Mrs. Kennedy several weeks ago, Mrs. Douglas took charge of the two Kennedy children.
On the night of the murder, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas and the six children retired early in their little home. Mr. Douglas and the eldest boy occupying the room on the opposite end of the tent from the kitchen. Mrs. Douglas and the other children occupied the middle, or dining room.
In the dead of night Mr. Douglas was awakened by the sound of the latch on the door between the dining room and the kitchen being raised. Almost instantly there followed the report of a gun in the darkness. Mr. Douglas rushed from his room into the dining room and near the kitchen door found his wife lying on the floor mortally wounded. Nearby lay the lamp, which, it appears, had not been lighted.
Pausing only to place his wife in an easy position, Mr. Douglas hurried to the mine for assistance. Upon his return with help the woman was found to be beyond the need of mortal aid.
The wound which caused the death of Mrs. Douglas was made by a charge of shot from a shot gun, fired from an elevation on a level with the woman’s breast and at a distance of perhaps five or six feet. Several scattering shot had penetrated her left arm.
On the morning following tracks were found leading from the scene of the crime down the trail toward the Colorado river. Ike Alcock organized a posse and began the search for the murderer. In the meantime an inquest was held and the facts found to be as above related.
District Attorney Stebenne and Undersheriff Frank Wait and Deputy Ernest Lake, left Las Vegas early in the morning of the 22nd and upon arriving on the scene investigated the circumstances as completely as possible. Frank Wait took charge of the man hunt.
No motive for the crime has been revealed. The fact that a sack of cornmeal which had been on the shelf was found on the floor near the kitchen door and other provender had been taken and placed on the kitchen table as if preparatory for packing away, indicates that the murderer was in need of food. That he should fire without first making an attempt to escape, indicates that he was desperate. Two theories are advanced by those most familiar with the circumstances. First is that the murder was committed by the mysterious Queho, an Indian who is supposed to have killed several people in that portion of the country six or eight years ago, and in whose chase considerable money was spent by the county and in which the State Police also took part, but without result. Queho was reported by the Indians several years ago to be dead. Now the Indian trailers assisting in the man chase express the belief that they are on the trail of Queho, owing to the tracks indicating that the fugitive has a limp which fits the ghostly, evanescent Queho.
The other theory is that the man Roberts, who left El Centro in the Imperial Valley with his wife and child about January 5th, may be the murderer. About a week ago the body of a woman was found in a desolate spot in the brush in the Imperial Valley. The woman’s throat had been cut and then the body was partially destroyed by burning with coal oil. However, enough of the shoes was left to make identification of the remains as those of Mrs. Roberts certain.
The California authorities are making a wide search for Roberts and the child, no trace of either of them having yet been discovered. There has been ample time for Roberts to dispose of the horse and buggy which he was driving and to abandon or murder the child, and work his way alone through the desolated reaches of the country bordering the Colorado river as far north as Eldorado Canyon. In support of this theory, it is pointed out that a fugitive murderer suffering from privations and in a starving condition would be apt to act as the murderer of Mrs. Douglas did. It is pointed out also that a hungry Indian would watch the camp until the occupants had gone before robbing it, and would be very unlikely to enter a house filled with people in the night.
There is also another possibility. It is that the mysterious disappearance of two prospectors from a camp near the old Pittsburg mine not far from the Colorado river below St. Thomas, may in some way be connected with the matter. Possibly the tracks being followed by the posse and which are found to wind abut over the broken country in an aimless way, were made by one of those men and do not relate to the murderer of Mrs. Douglas. Possibly one of them may have become deranged in mind as a result of his wanderings and have committed the murder while in that condition.
The country along the Colorado river is probably as difficult as any in the United States and the result of the long chase is always in doubt. When one considers the innumerable hiding places. However, Frank Wait, Ike Alcock, Ernest Lake, Clark M. Alvord, Pete Mesher, with two expert Indian trailers, Baboon and Indian Kearney, are making superhuman efforts to capture the criminal and there is a good prospect of their being successful.