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Austin, Texas, July 31, 1896.

Mrs. Anna E. Bert and her two children, Lucille and Eleanor, aged four and two years,

were found dead yesterday morning about 10 o'clock in a cistern on the premises recently occupied by the family at 207 East 9th Street.

Sometime last week, Mr. William E. Burt, brother of Roscoe. M. Burt, the well-known

shoe dealers, gave out he was going to Dallas to live. Early in the week, he sold his carpets,

and Saturday last he sent an expressman with a note to his brothers, asking them to send him some boxes to pack his household goods in.

They complied and saw nothing more of him until Saturday night about nine o'clock when he visited their store.

He got a new pair of shoes there, told his brothers he was going to Dallas on the midnight train,

and that his wife and children were at her mother's, and that he would send for them.

He bade his brothers goodbye.

There was nothing unusual in his conduct.

Sunday, Mrs. Powers, mother of Mrs. Burt,

called at their residence to visit her daughter and was astounded to find it vacant.

She made inquiries and learned from several sources,

principally from Minnie Sims, cooked for the Burt family, that Mr. Burt had sent them to San Antonio.

She doubted the story, and it is said she went so far as to telegraph not only to San Antonio, but to Waco, with the hope of hearing from her daughter.

Mrs. Powers last Tuesday impressed with the fact that her daughter and children had been murdered, called in Detective

Sheneville and laid the matter before him. It was late in the day, but he visited the premises, went through the house, but found nothing whatever to indicate that anything was wrong.

Mrs. Powers was still not satisfied, and strange to say she insisted that her daughter was in

the cistern on the premises at 207.9th Street. Mr. Billy Brush, who lives near her, went to see her Tuesday night and promised he would do what he could to discover the whereabouts of her daughter.

He proceeded to Mr. V.O. Weeds and laid the case before him, and they called in Justice Matt Johnson, and it was agreed to examine the premises carefully the next morning.

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