Murderer Still at Large
Richard H. Lee Keeps the Police Officers Guessing.
Not seen since last Monday. Theory That He Has Retreated Into the Woods and Gone Into Hiding Till Vigor of the Chase Subsides Has Many Friends to Shield Him Officers are Searching and Guarding Every Avenue of Escape.

Post Intelligencer
April 15, 1896

Richard H. Lee, alias Shafer. alias Smith, the supposed murderer of Policeman Thomas Roberts, holds the trump card over his pursuers at present, and it is a hard matter to predict when there will be a charge. Lee's special advantage lies in the fact that he has the police guessing as to where he is. This condition of affairs necessarily weakens the pursuit. Lee may be In hiding in the vicinity of Cathcart. or he may be working across country to the line of the Northern Pacific.

No one has seen him since 3 o'clock last Monday afternoon, when he was standing in the bushes a short distance from the track of the Seattle & International railway. The tact that he has not been seen gives rise to the theory that he has retreated into the woods and gone into hiding until the vigor of the chase is over. There are many vacant cabins in the woods near Woodinville or Cathcart. and in many of them are provisions. Lee knows that country well, and if his wound is not serious he can keep under cover for an indefinite period.

Although a $500 reward has been offered for the arrest or information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of Lee, yet there is reason to believe that he has friends who would shield him and do all in their power to send the officers on the wrong track. The residents of the country as a whole, however, are anxious to see Lee captured, and can be depended upon to give all Information possible. Detective Cudihee informed Chief Reed Wednesday afternoon that he feared Lee had broken through the lines and was making for Snoqualmie. Some color is given to this theory by the discovery of a horse back of Snoqualmie yesterday that was stolen a day or so ago from Monohan.

It is possible that Lee passed through Franklin yesterday morning at 9 o'clock in the morning. Is a very difficult matter, however, to judge the real value of this alleged news W. J. Carey, constable at Franklin, wired Chief Reed yesterday afternoon between 2 and 3 o'clock that two men passed through Franklin at 9 o'clock in the morning, and that they answered the descriptions given in the circulars of Lee and his confederate. Carey also said that the smaller of the men had his arm in a sling, but would not show the wound. The larger man said that they came from Seattle, and were going across to Palmer, and would probably go from there to Tacoma, where there was a hospital.

Carey asked If he should intercept and hold the men. Chief Reed wired back immediately to hold them by all means, and he would send a man on the first train to identify them. No reply was received to this telegram, which would indicate that the men were not intercepted. When Clerk Atkins called up the Puget Sound railroad and asked when the next train would leave he was told that 10 o'clock today was the time. If Lee was one of the men who are said to have passed through Franklin, he has traveled about twenty-five miles across country, which would indicate that his wound is not troubling him as much as the police would like.

It may be that the friends of Lee sent two men through Franklin with a cock-and-bull story. Intended to distract attention from the vicinity of Cathcart and Woodinville. Detectives Williams and Barbee were sent to Renton yesterday to investigate a story about the discovery of some bloody clothes by a man named Evans, on a bluff near the town. They looked as if they had been wrapped around some one's arm. The discovery is of no value, unless it tends to show that Lee has succeeded in doubling back to Renton, met his confidant then continued on to Franklin.

Chief of Police and Capt. Willard are still inclined to believe that Lee has gone into hiding near Cathcart. They are disappointed at the delay in winding up the hunt, but still are firmly of the belief that sooner or later Lee will be run down. "It may be months before he is captured." said Willard, "but it will come. The chase not after an unknown man. This changes the conditions. Lee will have a hard time to get out of the country. He is a marked man and his picture will be in every town in the Pacific Northwest within a week." Chief Reed had more circulars containing descriptions of Roberts' murderer and his companion struck off yesterday.

He also got a lot of Lee's photographs and attached them to the circulars. "If Lee gets sway," said the chief, "it will not be because the country is not informed concerning him or we have not followed every clue." The police have ascertained beyond a question of doubt that Lee has a pistol on him Saturday afternoon previous to the shooting. He was seen in a Washington street saloon with it, but there was nothing in his actions to indicate that he had it for any special purpose. Owing to the doubt as to the vicinity in which is hiding or the direction be has taken, the plans of pursuit have broken.

Yesterday morning the men in the field went out in all directions and when the train came in last night it brought no news of them. Generally speaking, the country in which the chase has been confined is fairly well covered, But when one considers that the mountains are full of half-defined trails that lead in all directions, the difficulty of running down a man. well acquainted with the neighborhood, becomes apparent. The detectives might pass within a foot of Lee and have no idea of what was happening. This was well illustrated in the long pursuit of Evans and Sontag in California.

Cudihee and Philbrlck guarded the North Bend bridge Tuesday night, and on Wednesday covered the Snoqualmie road. Deputy Sheriff A. O. Lane and Detective Meredith followed the Snoqualmie river to Tolt Tuesday night on horseback and guarded the first ferry all night. At daybreak they continued down the valley to Munroe, crossing the river at every opportunity and informing the residents of what had happened. They took in every cross-road and made a thorough job of it.

Wednesday night all of the pursuers took turns watching the Falls City bridge and Snoqualmie pass road. No one came their way, but in the morning they learned that the horse which had been stolen from Monohan had been found on the hill back of Snoqualmie. If Lee stole the horse, then there is some reason to believe that he may have, passed through Franklin. The difficulty experienced in following Lee after he was seen at both Houghton and Woodinville has brought up the question of tracking criminals by bloodhounds. An officer of the law said yesterday: "If the police or sheriff's office had two well trained bloodhounds this man Lee would have been captured long ago.

It seems to me that the need of the hounds is now apparent." The day of Roberts' murder some one had a big hound that was said to be of the man-trailing family, on the ground. He did not take up the trail. It is said that the dog was nothing more than a foxhound.