Remember the ‘weird death’ officers were investigating in Blackfoot in 1951? Here’s what the autopsy revealed.

BLACKFOOT — The “slaying theory” about a Utah woman found dead in Blackfoot in 1951 was “dimmed” after a surprising autopsy report was announced in the local paper.

EastIdahoNews.com shared the story of Laura Florine McNamara Brewer — it was previously reported as Laura Macklemar but Blackfoot officers clarified her name in a later article — in our weekly Looking Back column, which looks back on what life was like during certain time periods in east Idaho history.

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The body of the Salt Lake City woman, 46, was found on April 30, 1951, at 9:30 a.m. on the Westcott Oil company property near Broadway. Her “rain-soaked battered body was discovered … beneath two bulk oil tanks.”

Coroner believes woman was the ‘victim of foul play’

Al Trolin, coroner, said he believed the woman had been dead between eight to 10 hours. Although there were no signs of knife or gunshot wounds, Bingham County Sheriff Everett Goodwin said there was no doubt in his mind that she was the victim of foul play.

“The woman’s legs were reported badly bruised and a deep burn showing marks like that of a hot waffle iron on her left shoulder were found,” the Idaho Falls Post Register said on April 30, 1951. “The body was so covered with mud that at first it was impossible to say whether or not she was a white woman.”

The Idaho Falls Post Register reported on May 1, 1951, there had been an “ironic twist in the case” when a .25 cent novel called “Journey into Ecstasy” was found within 25 feet of the body.

Trolin said the body appeared to have been dragged to the spot it was discovered at.

Witnesses ’rounded up’

The sheriff’s office had “rounded up” several witnesses. One of the witnesses was a Salt Lake man named Raymond Hartsfield, 43, who Brewer came to Blackfoot with. He admitted he had been living with Brewer and referred to her as his wife and “sweetheart.” He was being held in jail as a “material witness.”

Hartsfield failed to report for work as a steamfitter at the atomic reactor site the morning Brewer was found dead. He was arrested that day in Blackfoot while drinking at the Empire Bar.

Hartsfield originally reported that Brewer was missing following a drinking party Saturday night. He said he last saw her at 8:30 p.m. Saturday when he was thrown out of the El Rancho Bar by two men in his party. One of the other men was with a woman, according to Hartsfield.

After being thrown out of the bar, he went back to the Kesler Motel where he and Brewer were staying.

“Hartsfield told officers he had been asked to leave the Kesler motel where he had been staying with the dead woman,” the paper states. “His movements were being closely checked from Saturday night until Monday morning.”

In a written statement to Police Chief Frank Kunz and Goodwin, a Blackfoot woman by the name of Evelyn O. Lee, said she saw Hartsfield with the victim twice. Once on Sunday around 11 p.m. when they entered the Blue Plate Cafe and Monday at 1 a.m. when Hartsfield and two other men entered the cafe where the woman was sitting.

The witness said she didn’t notice when Hartsfield and Brewer left or if they left together.

Autopsy results announced, investigation continues

Pocatello pathologist Dr. E.B. Webb conducted the autopsy on Brewer, who officers discovered had been married twice and divorced. The Idaho Falls Post Register reported on May 2, 1951, that the autopsy revealed Brewer died from natural causes.

Webb said the cause of death could have been “cardiac failure due to mitral stenosis probably aggravated by acute alcoholism. Mitral refers to the heart valve and stenosis to the stoppage of the valve to a closing of the entrance.”

After the autopsy results were announced, Hartsfield was immediately released from jail. However, he was later notified of his dismissal from his job.

The county coroner said no inquest would be held, but Kunz and Goodwin said they were still investigating the circumstances surrounding Brewer’s death.

They insisted the condition of the woman’s body indicated “some violence.” They were also focusing on how the woman’s body got to where it was found in a mudhole. Officials mentioned the burn on Brewer’s shoulder “apparently was inflicted several days” before her death.

EastIdahoNews.com could not find further information or articles about Brewer other than she left behind a daughter who was traveling to Blackfoot to claim her body. Brewer was to be buried in Salt Lake City.