Emma

Other Events:

• Interesting: crime, murder
• Name: Emma Pohl
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-169113
• Misfortune: 1948; murdered

Notes:

Police of Kitchener and Waterloo joined forces in an attempt to solve the mysterious disappearance of Mrs. William Pohl, 37, who left her home in Kitchener Sept. 13 and has not been seen since.

Lethbridge Herald: Friday, October 15, 1948 - Page 4

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Murder Still Unsolved - Mrs. Pohl's Body Found in Thicket

By The Canadian Press -

Kitchener - William Pohl today positively identified the decomposed body of a woman found in a lonely pastureland, as that of his 37 year old wife, Emma, missing since Sept. 13.

Kitchener - the end of the search for Mrs. Emma Pohl lay today within a high-heeled tan shoe. The shoe was on the right foot of the woman's decomposed body, crumpled in a thicket in lonely pastureland five miles southwest of this Waterloo County town. It covered, police were sure, two missing toes, a means of definite identification of Mrs. Pohl, missing since Sept. 13.

There was little doubt last night when a youthful hunter stumbled upon the body that it was that of the 37 year old, twice-married woman whose disappearance has stirred southern Ontario for weeks. Tan shoes Mrs. Pohl was wearing when she left her Kitchener home to collect a $600 debt from her former boyfriend were on the feet. The few clothes remaining on the body were identified as those of Mrs. Pohl.

The announcement was not entirely unexpected in this farm community where for weeks police forces have been concentrated in the search and which for a time puzzled over the disappearance of a second woman, a friend of Mrs. Pohl, who eventually turned up in London, England. But the means of death was startling. The woman had been strangled.

A central figure in the puzzling case is William Stuart, Mrs. Pohl's young and handsome ex-boyfriend held since Oct. 1 on a charge of public mischief in connection with the woman's disappearance. It was from Stuart that Mrs. Pohl was to have collected the $600. What police termed discrepancies in his story of his movements Sept. 13 led to placement of the charge.

In a macabre setting lighted by the headlights of a circle of police cars and flashlights, Stuart, under escort, stood over the body and asserted: "How should I know? I don't know anything about it."

The body was left overnight where it was found, under police guard, to be taken later today to Woodstock for post-mortem examination. But there was little doubt about the woman's death. She had been strangled by a piece of her clothing, the cloth knotted tightly about the throat.

Mrs. Stuart's Reaction - By the Canadian Press - London - Showing little visible emotion, Mrs. John Stuart learned today of the discovery in an Ontario woodland of the strangled body of Mrs. Emma Pohl, the woman her Canadian son once planned to marry.

"That's terrible - I never expected anything like that." She told The Canadian Press. "I thought she would turn up somewhere in the United States. I can't understand it." The 56 year old Mrs. Stuart said in an interview at the home of friends where she is staying in London's East End, the scene of her childhood: "I'll have to get home to Galt somehow. I've written my brother John Windler in Galt asking his advice but haven't heard from him yet. I just haven't got money to get home."

OttawaCitizen 26 Oct 1948

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MURDER SUSPECT FREED - KITCHENER A charge of public mischief laid against William Stuart late in September was withdrawn in police court today at the request of crown attorney W. P. Clement.' The charge was laid while policy were probing the disappearance of Mrs. Emma Pohl, Kitchener housewife, whose semi-nude body was later found in a thicket near Plattsville.

Medicine Hate Daily News 1 Dec 1948 pg 1

Emma — William Pohl. William was born Abt 1910; died Yes, date unknown. [Group Sheet]