Small-town police are accustomed to dealing with all sorts of situations, but the call that interrupted Police Chief Ed Church's slumber before dawn on Sunday, Feb. 27, 1944, was especially disconcerting.
So he gathered reinforcements --- well as shovels --- and set out with two others to investigate reports of a mysterious fresh grave in southwest Chariton.
Here's what they found, as reported under the headline "Dig Grave at 4 in the Morning" in The Chariton Leader of Tuesday, Feb. 29.
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The newly-made grave had been opened. Chief of Police Ed Church, Ike Daugherty and Evan Davis had lifted the casket to the surface.
They removed the lid from the box. They saw a pretty pink baby blanket. Police Chief Church lifted the blanket.
There, in death, lay a Boston bulldog. A mystery was solved.
Church had been notified that at 4 a.m. Sunday that persons were seen digging a grave in southwest Chariton. The grave was easily found. A neat mound covered with evergreen twigs had been built over it. Stones marked each end of the grave. Footprints of a man and a woman were visible around it.
The three men replaced everything and the grave now is just as it was when they began their investigation.
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Most likely we'll never know who had buried their deceased canine companion, nor exactly why they had waited until the pre-dawn hours of a Sunday morning to do it. But somewhere down here in southwest Chariton, most likely, is the long lost grave of a treasured pet.
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