Mason, WI Private Plane Crashes, Jan 1954

FIND PLANE, TWO BODIES IN SWAMP.

Mason, Wis. (AP) -- A small private plane which crashed New Year's Day was found near here Sunday, covered with snow. Both persons aboard were dead.
The body of the pilot, JULIUS GROSS, 47, Waukegan, Ill., was found in the wreckage of the four-passenger Stinson. The body of his only passenger, DELORES HEROPKIE, 14, Hurley, Wis., was found lying in the snow nearby.
The plane, covered with snow from Saturday's snowstorm, was spotted by LESTER KELLEY and JOSEPH BURWEGER, members of a volunteer 150-man party which searched a cut over timber area near Bibon Swamp southwest of here.
Ten Civil Air Patrol planes participated in an aerial search.
Sheriff TERENCE ARSENEAU of Bayfield County said the plane had struck a tree.
The search for the plane began late Friday after RAY WILDER, a farmer, telephoned the sheriff that he heard the roar of a plane over his house. He said he then heard a crash and a muffled explosion.
Search efforts were called off Saturday when a blizzard struck extreme northwestern Wisconsin.
The plane left Waukegan at 2:45 p.m. Friday. GROSS intended to return DELORES to her home at Hurley. The girl had been visiting at the home of her brother-in-law, who is GROSS' son.
Her parents, MR. and MRS. EUGENE HEROPKIE, said GROSS was expected to land at the Ironwood, Mich., airport but that adverse weather conditions there might have made GROSS decide to try to land at Duluth, Minn.

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune 1954-01-04
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!