February 24, 1901
Spokane, Washington
A woman is found with her 6 drowned children in a well
The woman, Rosa Wurzer, has become a widow the year before the murders. She became increasingly depressed as she struggled to feed her 6 children: Rosa (11), Louisa (10), Anna (7), Joseph and Mary (twins, 6), and George (4). Believing she had no other options, she threw each child into a well, jumped in with them to drown each. She attempted to drown herself as well, but the water was too shallow to commit suicide. She was discovered the next morning.
Wurzer originally offered the motive as preferring her children dead than to live in poverty, then claiming she believed the Chinese were going to attack them.
Coroners established the children had been killed before being thrown in the well, with 5 of the children suffering from broken necks and the sixth from a deep head wound. I could not find fate of Mrs. Wurzer, but it was likely she was committed to an asylum.
Clipping from the Richmond Dispatch, February 26 1901
