| Notes |
- Beauty Queen. Not slain, verdict of coroner, ascribing Louisville death of Cincinnatian's kin to effects of fall.
Miss Una Ponder, 26-year-old former Louisville beauty queen, who was found dying in her Louisville apartment by Greater Cincinnati relatives September 11, died of a "cerebral hemorrhage due to a fall in her home," the Jefferson County Coroner's office ruled yesterday.
Miss Ponder died the day after she was found by a sister, Mrs. Charles Rhodus, 121 Latonia Terrace Homes, Covington, and a brother, Keith Ponder, 127 Garfield Pl. They went to Louisville after receiving a mysterious telephone call that Miss Ponder was "in trouble."
Deputy Coroner Joseph Beck said that "the verdict is on the basis of information available at this time." Sgt. henry Riebel of the police homicide squad said that he still was investigating the possibility of homicide.
When found the woman's body was covered in bruises and what appeared to be cigarette burns. Death by a sadistic killer was suspected at first. Later, however, police said a closer inspection cast doubt on the possibility of injury by another person.
Cincinnati Enquirer. 23 Sep 1947.
[3]
- Four men sought in beauty queen's death; Cincinnati kin find body, beaten, burned.
An investigation of the "torture" death of Miss Una V. Ponder, attractive 36-yaer-old brunette who was found dying of blows and burns in her Louisville, Ky., apartment early yesterday by four Greater Cincinnati relatives, had narrowed last night to a search for four men whose names were found in a book in the slaying victim's room.
Miss Ponder, who was crowned Miss Louisville of 1932, is a sister of Mrs. Charles Rhodus, 121 Latonia Ter., Covington; of Keith Ponder, 128 Garfield Pl, Cincinnati, and Clyde and Brown Ponder, both of Covington.
Mrs. Rhodus and the three Ponder brothers hastened to Louisville late Thursday after the victim's Covington sister had received a telephone call from a Louisville man who termed himself a male friend of Miss Ponder. The man said he had failed to obtain any answer to telephone calls or visits to Miss Ponder's apartment and had, therefore, become "uneasy" for her safety.
Escorted by Louisville police, Mrs. Rhodus and her three brothers gained entry into Miss Ponder's apartment by climbing through a window after finding all doors locked.
Inside they found sprawled on the floor Miss Ponder's almost nude body covered with bruises, cuts and what appeared to be burns. Police said they thought the burns had been caused by lighted cigarettes. Coroner Roy Carter declared the burns had been cause by "Rubbing against something."
The Coroner said Miss Ponder died of head injuries caused "by a severe blow from a blunt instrument, or from a fall." She died at a Louisville hospital several hours after she was found, without recovering her consciousness.
Police said there was no evidence of a struggle in the apartment which contained three unmade beds and what "looked like a hundred whisky bottles."
Neighbors said they had not seen Miss Ponder since early in the week and police said she probably had been beaten and burned some time Wednesday. They had no theories of a motive for the attack.
Mrs. George R. Montgomery, a neighbor, said she saw Miss Ponder talking to a man at the entrance to her apartment Late Tuesday night.
"He was leaving as I walked up and I didn't get a good look at him," Mrs. Montgomery said.
Another neighbor, Charles States, said he saw Miss Ponder at the entrance of her apartment either Tuesday or Wednesday night.
"She looked strange and I asked her if she was sick," States said. "She didn't answer so I went to my room and went to bed."
Police said they were seeking the unidentified Louisville man who called Mrs. Rhodus in the hope of obtaining some clues in the slaying. They also were seeking the men whose names were written in the book found in the apartment.
A former resident of Livingston, Ky., Miss Ponder had worked in Louisville as a drugstore clerk and a hotel news stand attendant.
Cincinnati Enquirer, 13 Sep 1947. Saturday. Page 3.
[3]
- Sadist blamed in woman's death.
Louisville, Ky. Sept. 13. (INS) - A sadist who apparently sued a cigaret to speckle his victim's body with burns was sought today in the death of an attractive brunette found unconscious and nearly-nude in her apartment.
Miss Una. V. Ponder, 26, died in Louisville General hospital a few hours after she was found by her sister and three brothers. They entered the locked apartment through a window.
Hospital attendants said the woman's body was covered from head to feet with burns, bruises and lacerations. Her death was attributed by police to a brain injury.
Miami News (Miami, Florida), 13 Sep 1947. Saturday.
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1911 - 1947 (36 years)
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