Mary Phagan’s body was found lying face down on the basement floor near the rear of the factory. A heavy cord or wrapping twine had been pulled tightly around her neck, and a strip of cloth torn from her petticoat covered her face, as if someone had tried to hide the marks of her death. The loose end of the cord lay along her back, resting between her two thick braids of dark red hair, which suggested it had been placed there deliberately rather than dropped in panic.
Aside from a four inch cut on the back of her head, serious damage to the scalp, and bruises on her forehead, cheeks, left arm, and left leg, there was no clear sign that she had been killed by anything other than strangulation. The marks on her neck showed deep indentations and bruising from the cord, and the gravel and dirt smeared on her face indicated that her body had been dragged along the basement floor while the noose was still being tightened. The evidence pointed to a long, fierce struggle, with the child fighting hard before being stunned by the blow to the head.
On her left arm, a small gold bracelet was pressed deeply into the flesh, leaving a sharp imprint. Two fingers on her left hand were bruised where a signet ring had been worn, and when officers arrived after Newt Lee, the night watchman, reported the discovery, they found grit and sand caked on her face, neck, and shoulders, clear proof that the body had been pulled and dragged across the floor.
She was dressed in a lavender pongee silk dress trimmed with cheap lace, black stockings, and a black pump on her right foot. Her other shoe lay nearby, and a plain blue straw hat was found close to the elevator shaft. Two turquoise blue ribbon bows were still tied in her hair, held in place by the torn piece of her underskirt, while the hat bow itself was missing.
The violence of the killing had badly disfigured her features. Her skin was discolored and bruised, one eye was blackened, both eyelids were swollen, and dirt and grit had been ground into the cuts and scratches on her forehead. Mary Phagan was 14 years old, about four feet ten inches tall, slender, and weighed approximately 105 pounds.
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