Wind Lake, WI drowning, Aug 1936

FIND GIRL'S DEATH DUE TO DROWNING

Coroner's Verdict Exonerates Victim's Fiance from Blame.

Racine, Aug. 20 - (AP) - The death of May Gaulke, 15-year-old Milwaukee high school girl, was declared an "accidental drowning" in a coroner's jury verdict returned today.

The girl drowned in Wind Lake near here last Saturday. Her disappearance puzzled authorities until the body was found last Monday.

Harold Linderman, May's 36-year-old fiance who was the girl's companion on the swimming trip, repeated his story of what happened while they were swimming about 1,500 feet from shore.

Linderman said they dived into the water from opposite sides of the boat. He swam for about eight or ten minutes, he said, and May spoke to him from the opposite side of the boat. Later when he swam around the boat she had disappeared, he said. Believing she was playing a joke on him, Linderman said he searched for her for a long time. Becoming apprehensive, he finally called the coast guard.

The autopsy report of Dr. Marcos Fernan - Nunez, Marquette university pathologist, and Dr. William Konnak, Racine county physician, was introduced at the inquest. The report declared there were no signs of violence on the body and that there was congestion in the lungs such as is caused by death from drowning.

Assistant District Attorney Oscar M. Edwards and Coroner E. B. Yanny conducted the inquest.

Linderman, a Milwaukee railroad switchman, is awaiting a court hearing Aug. 25 on a morals charge.

The Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, MI 20 Aug 1936
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!