On February 19, 1898 one of Christine Sweetin's sisters went to the police to alert them her sister had been murdered. Earlier that day May Smith, who worked for Christine, told her that when she showed up for work Christine was not home. Not only that but there was a pool of blood in the kitchen. When May asked Joseph Frey, Christine's husband, about it he told her to clean it up and after that he no longer needed her services. After hearing all this, her sister, probably Mildred, went to pay a visit to her home at 922 North 14th Street. When she got there, she found her sister missing and Joseph wasn't there either.
All of this convinced that Christine had been murdered by her husband. After all this wasn't the first time Joseph was in trouble with the law. He and Christine, known to the police as Minnie Harris, had been arrested a few years back on counterfeiting charges. Beyond that Christine had moved in with Joseph and lied about the two of them being married, so the family wasn't very trusting of him.
The police questioned Joseph. He insisted he had taken his wife to the train station and from there she traveled to Cuba to see her family. He took the police to the stable where he had hired the cab to take his wife to the train station. John McDonald confirmed Joseph's story as did an upstairs neighbor. Under further investigation, the blood on the floor might have been a few drops rather than a pool. Nevertheless, the police took Joseph into custody and sent a telegraph to Cuba, inquiring about Christine's whereabouts.
The police became "fairly certain" of his innocence when Christine Sweetin showed up in person at the Four Courts building where Joseph was being held. At that point the released Joseph who reported to the paper, that his arrest was the fault of his sister-in-law, "who doesn't like him."
From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat Feb 20, 1898
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch Feb 20, 1898
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch Feb 21, 1898
From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat Feb 21, 1898
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