100 years ago in Spokane: Woman dies when car falls from ferry; further developments in disappearance

Mrs. J.B. Crain, wife of a prominent Pasco banker, drowned when the car she was in plunged off the end side of a Columbia River ferry, The Spokesman-Review reported.

Dr. and Mrs. Crain (spelled Crane in early accounts) were on a trip through Washington and British Columbia when they boarded a ferry at Bossburg, north of Kettle Falls.

The ferryman asked Dr. Crain to move his car slightly to one side. When he attempted to do so, he lost control of the car and it plunged off the end of the ferry. “Dr. Crain escaped by jumping, but because of the top being raised, Mrs. Crain was caught and all efforts to rescue her failed.”

Spokane divers were sent to the scene to recover her body.

From the crime beat: A few more details emerged about the arrest of Jewel Marie McDonald, 35, and her brother Ted McDonald, 18, in Los Angeles.

Their arrests were not on charges of murdering W.H. McNutt, the Spokane real estate man who had been missing since June. They were arrested for auto theft, because Los Angeles police found them in possession of McNutt’s car.

Burns detectives had traced the car to Roseburg, Oregon, where it had been driven from Spokane by an unidentified woman, and then to Los Angeles, where it had been driven by William McDonald, another brother.

The McDonalds had been involved in an acrimonious business dispute with McNutt over a Spokane lodging house.

“They refused to discuss McNutt’s disappearance except to deny any knowledge of it,” said a wire service story from Los Angeles.