Turner - Robert Earl
Waveland Independent
Waveland, Montgomery County, Indiana
June 22, 1944
Shortly after 2 Monday morning Robert Earl TURNER, 16, from Lincoln Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit was struck by a car or truck at Wave-Inn corner and was terribly mangled. Death was doubtlessly instantaneous as his head was crushed and both legs were broken and his body was bruised and otherwise broken. It appeared the boys who were on their way from Detroit to Paducah, KY had been walking and had become tired and lay down on the pavement to rest and had fallen asleep. Roy Rogers of Illinois who came through Waveland in a truck discovered the body and called Dr. Noblitt who in turn called Harry Machledt and Sheriff Harold Zeller and state police, James Gilliland soon arrived on the scene. Identification of the Turner boy was made by his companion, Fredrick Kulich, aged 17 who was found asleep on the edge of the pavement when Mr. Rogers stopped his truck to keep from running over the dead boy's body. Naturally this was an avoidable accident caused by the youthful carelessness and there was no reason why the driver of the death vehicle should not have stopped and rendered aid and obeyed the law, but he did not and he may never be known. Sheriff Zeller took young Kulich to Crawfordsville for questioning and the parents of the dead boy were notified. They arrived in Waveland Monday night and arranged for Mr. Machledt to ship the body of their son back to Lincoln Park for burial. An inquest was held by coroner TZ Ball, Monday morning.