Mennonite Killed

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         Mennonite Killed, Ex-      Amish Arrested (4/14/07)
   A few weeks ago in Wisconsin, a late night of partying and boozing ended in tragedy. It was about 2 am when a 26 year old ex-Amish boy and an Old Order Mennonite boy were driving down the road. Their names are being with held for privacy reasons.
   The ex-Amish boy was driving and the Mennonite was sitting in the passenger seat with a beer in hand. The cold Wisconsin roads were empty. Then they passed a cop. The cop turned around and started following them.
   The ex-Amish boy got scared because he was already in trouble with the law so he stepped on the gas and got out of there. Unfortunately, the police officer was a man who had never actually been involved in a chase. He took this opportunity to put his dreams into action. He followed the ex-Amish boy with all the skill he could muster. He called all his buddy cops and they roared after the ex-Amish boy. They were dreaming of what they would do when they finally apprehended the suspect.
   The ex-Amish boy shot along the road at speeds up to 120 mph but the cops were close behind. Eventually he shot over a hill and went airborne. His car flew into a tree 10 feet from the ground. The ex-Amish boy quickly jumped out of the car and ran away. He thought the Mennonite boy was doing the same. He ran to the Mennonite boy's house and climbed a tree where he waited on his friend until the next day.
   Meanwhile the cops were very confused when their query dissappeared. They searched and searched, went for coffee 3 times and finally found the car in the tree the next morning. They pulled out their guns to apprehend the suspects, but all they found was a Mennonite boy who was dead. The driver was no where to be found. When they saw the dead guy they were dissapointed and went to the donut store again.
Later that day the ex-Amish boy found out that his friend had been killed so he got out of the tree and went to the police station and turned himself in. The police were dissapointed they couldn't chase him again. He spent the night in jail with a lumber jack who cut down a tree which was protected by the EPA and a man who killed his neighbors dog.
   The ex-Amish boy stayed in jail untill his dad came to visit him and told him he would bail him out if he came back to the Amish. The boy agreed and he went home and put on his suspenders. He faces a bunch of charges.
The only good thing that came out of the incident was that Amish and Mennonite preachers all over the USA and Canada are now using this story to keep their young people from running away (Mary Beiler BIHN News National Correspondent).

Shocking Developments on “Amish Man Poisons Wife” story

By Ira L. Wagler

All of the following is true.

Yesterday birdinhandnews.com received the following two emails, presented here exactly as we received them.

Email 1:

From Sheriff George W. Martz

Harrison County, MO

May 21, 2007

Regarding the story "Amish Man Poisons Wife", this is the rest of the story.

Your story about the man who poisoned his wife has many untruths in it. First of all, I was unaware of any investigation being conducted into the death of the Amish lady. The man was not arrested, jailed, questioned or detained. I am aware that he applied for and was granted a marriage license by the Circuit Clerk of HarrisonCounty.

If you have further information about a homicide that has occurred here please contact me. I would really like to hear from you about this matter.

Email 2:

I have contacted the Harrison County Coroner who was notified upon the death. He went to the scene. He was familiar with the persons involved. The lady has been doctoring with a specialist in Kansas City. The diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. She had been hospitalized prior to her death. When treatment was no longer effective she was sent home to pass on when it came her time. This story does not name the lady or the alleged murderer but if a minister in the State of Michigan can call me and recite the name the information is pretty wide spread. What an awful thing to do to someone and his family. Check your story next time. It might just cause a little less heartache.

Sheriff George W. Martz

When I first saw these emails I immediately suspected a prank, but they are authentic. Today I spoke to Mr. Martz view telephone and decided he really is the sheriff and not a prankster. He assured me that he’s been sheriff of Harrison County for 33 years and the Amish man hasn’t been charged with anything.

It was not our intention to cause heartache for anyone. We simply reported the story as we heard it through various Amish gossip lines. Evidently the Amish gossip, chat line on the Free Conference Call is still talking about this story. Some Amish with a computer found it on the internet so they decided it’s true. Somehow they must’ve found the story on birdinhandnews.com and decided it’s the gospel truth. From the nature of this website, it’s pretty evident that we don’t always report the whole truth. On a matter of life and death, I suggest you get your hard evidence else where. Not everything on the internet is true.

Again, we are very sorry for our inaccurate journalism. According to the Sherrif of Harrison County, MO (where Bethany is located) the Amish man didn’t poison his wife. Mary Beiler has been fired for her lapse in journalistic etiquette. We now know that most gossip heard on chat lines is not true.
Here is the original story.

Amish Man Poisons Wife

5/01/2007 – This is a strange story. Some of the facts are a little sketchy, but we believe most of it is true. Bird in Hand News adheres to strict journalistic standards.
   Bethany, Missouri is a nida Amish community in the hills and bushes of the Midwest. The people who live there are very backward, not like the Amish in Lancaster, who are at the edge of technology in many ways. The Bethany settlement is pretty small and we aren’t sure if they even have running water. Most people who live there are simple.
   One Amish Man who lives in Bethany is not only simple; he is also at the heart of a murder investigation. The man lived with his wife and a house full of children. They had so many children; they had to hire a maid. Some time in January the man’s wife died mysteriously of liver failure.
   A few weeks later the Amish man and the maid made confessions in church that they had an inappropriate relationship, and soon thereafter they applied for a marriage license. Many Amish and Mennonites who heard this story started getting suspicious about the man. Some started conducting investigations.
   At this point the story gets a little sketchy. Some reports say the man and maid got married and others say they didn’t. Either way, when local police saw the man's marriage license application in the paper so soon after his wife’s death, they got suspicious. They went out and arrested the man.
   After the Amish man was questioned for awhile, he admitted to putting poison into his wife’s tea. It is unclear if he’s still in jail. The maid is pregnant, and we aren’t sure if the dead wife’s body will be exhumed for an autopsy.
   We will update this story as soon as we get more details. Unfortunately birdinhandnews.com is too poor to send a reporter to Bethany, MO to conduct our own investigation (Mary Beiler BIHN News National Correspondant).

UPDATE 5/07/07. According to the Bethany, Missouri piece in The Budget, an Amish and Mennonite Newspaper, the Amish man and the maid were married three weeks ago. The article said nothing of the man's arrest, so it's unclear if he was arrested before the wedding or if he was arrested, released and then married. It is also believed that the Amish man confessed in church to "putting something in his wife's tea". After this confession he was put in the ban for three weeks.