Nearly a month later, after stories of his disappearance appeared in numerous newspapers in the region, a body was found just two miles south of Yale, Oklahoma. Charles Cable found the body, reported it and soon Police Chief Byron was calling together in quest led by Justice Dixon.
Doctors Stark and Shortbaugh examined the remains and it was clear the man had been killed. There was a bullet hole to the back of the head. It soon became apparent the body belonged to the missing 72 year old man, Cornelius Voorhies, who had gone missing February 25, 1915.
There was little known about the elderly man, he had come into the Pawnee County area "in the early days", was apparently a bachelor, and was somewhat of a recluse on his small farm.
Evidence revealed he had drawn money from the bank at Maramec, a team known to belong to him had been left at a livery stable in Cushing, Oklahoma, and police had a description of the man who had left the team there. They had a working theory that the day he withdrew money, or possible the next day, he had been robbed at his home, killed and then taken to the river, where his killer or killers had thrown the body into the river. They believed it had remained there in that place since the murder. Early remarks seem to indicate that the farm place looked disheveled but there had been no blood. That, coupled with the fact the body was found south of Yale, and the man's farm was far north along the river. Since the often bending course of the river is essentially to the east and south it meant the man had been thrown in the river closer to his home.
The remains were turned over to the Green and Combe Undertaking firm, prepared for burial and then it was noted they would be taken to Maramec.
Just how the case concluded is difficult to determine. Hobson counter sued in 2019 and an ex parte appeal by Rowe failed.
Federal census records provide some background on the victim. He was apparently the son of Isaac W. Voorhies and Salley Bozer Voorhies and had been born in Missouri in 1843/1844. His grave stone has the 1843 date. He can be found in Valley, Pawnee County, Oklahoma in 1910. In McElroy Twp., Pawnee, Oklahoma boarding with Frank and Rebecca Hoover. Note, this is also were Arthur Rowe is located. He can be found in Buchanan County, Missouri 1850, 1860, 1880.
In May 1916, the case came back to life with a convoluted story about a local "boy" who confessed to the murder while residing in Kansas City. Arthur Rowe, 32 was the son of a local Oklahoma farmer named A.C. (Alonzo Rowe). Some sources spell it as "Roe". Rowe confessed he had lived in "terror for two years" because he had been the pawn of a stronger personality that had threatened him if he did not go along with some vague plan of vengeance against the old farmer. Rowe named the other man as Joe Hobson, of Kansas, as the actual murderer.
Rowe, however, had brushes with the law earlier in Oklahoma. He had, in fact, been charged with forging checks in October of 1915 and sent for two years to the penitentiary.
May 12, 1916, a Marshall was returning Rowe to Oklahoma and law officers were seeing Hobson on charges of murdering Cornelius Voorhies in February of 1915.
Pawnee and the surrounding areas, even as late as 1915, were 'in the neighborhood of hell' - a new hell created by the new wealth as useless oil was found to have a profitable market. In such times, cattle booms or oil booms, there are always those to whom the easy way to wealth had more appeal than effort, sacrifice, work and planning. For those people, no one, not even an elderly recluse of a man who troubled no one, would stand in their way.
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