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Push Probe of Napanoch Girl’s DeathBr TIM SCHUSTERELLENVILLE Village and state police have t been unable to come up with a motive for what Is probably the most grisly slaying in Ulster County for some years.When Donald Avery. an Ellenville employe, came upon the body of 16 year«ld Diana L. Schoonmaker Friday morning in the village dump he raced to the village sanitation department phone a few hundred yards away to phonepolice.Her throat had been cut from ear to ear. probably with a razor.’’ theorized police, and her body stuffed into a card board drum, Avery saw an arm protruding from the drum, sitting at the bottom of an embankment of trash, and upon investigation discovered the fully clothed boay.“I saw an arm sticking out of it and thought it was a mannequin. explained Avery.who had been operating a bulldozer at the landfill site in the ordinary course of business.It was only pure accident that the body was discovered, noted Avery, as the trash was due to be covered over with his bulldozer as it is every day.Diana Schoonmaker of Napanoch had not been liv.ng at her parents’ home. Her parents are Frank and Dorothy Schoonmaker. The father identified the body at the morgue.___The last known address Diana Schoonmaker had was the Swan Acre Trailer Park off Route 55 west of Napanoch. She reportedly had lived with friends, and police said that she was arrested with a friend in July o n marijuana possession charges and at that time listed her addresr as Sunset Bunga.ow Colony, Granite Road. Kerhonkson.According to Ellenville Police Chief Trapnell. Mist Schoomaker had been stabbedseveral times and her throatcut.The landfill site is located just off Route 52 behind the Kimball Hose Company building, inside the village limits. Avery made his discovery at about 11 o'clock in the morning when he got off the bulldozer to look over the mound of trash and see how the grading might best be done.Police released the information after Miss Schoon-maker’a parents had beennotified and her Identity conclusively proven.The police theory at this point was that the girl had not been killed at the landfill site, but that the body had been transferred there from another spot. They thought it had probably been taken to the dump in the barrel and rolled down the hill.The barrel was found about 10 feet down the embankment in a pile of garbage by Avery.A coroner's report was requested by Ulster County Coroner Arthur C. Chipp ofCity of Kingston, M.Y.fHE WEATHER: Tonight P.rtly Cloudy — Twnp«r«1uri; M«». 26 — Min. 23VOL. CIV-No. 2SUNDAY MORNING. OCTOBER 20, 1974Tha Newspaper for Ulster County and the Surrounding Aree _PRICE 15 CENTS DAILY, 25 CENTS SUNDAYKerhonkson. and an autopsy was performed to find the cause of death. The report was not available Saturday nightA full scale investigation is being pushed by E!lenvil!e Po lice Chief William Trapnell. Detective Whalen State Police Captain Kenneth Odell and *be State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation.The landfill site was closed to the public by police immediately after the grisly discovery, and an intensive search of the premises begun in an effort to uncover clue* to the girl’s mysterious death.And village police, with Ellenville state police, began a questioning of her known friends to try to form some reason for the* brutal slaying.Avery, although aboeked in his role in the case, commented that he was glad he had found the body anyway as a proper burial was preferable to the burial she almost received.“We know of no reason . . . no cause ... for the murder as yet. police said late Saturday night______
Newspaper Details
Kingston Sunday Freeman
Kingston, New York, US
Sun, Oct 20, 1974
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Ryker F.
USA 20 Feb 2025
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