A grisly murder turned out to be unfounded when the victim showed up in good health.
In 1908, Mrs. Oro Jones submitted an affidavit in court to get her husband, Henry Jones, declared dead and his estate settled. The affidavit said he had been killed in May 1903 in Grants Pass and the body never found because it was cut into pieces and buried around the city.
Mrs. Jones said Henry had traveled from their home near Yreka to Grants Pass to buy a cow. He was seen there, but vanished before he got the cow. It was presumed someone knew he had money and killed him during a robbery.
For several years, no one really knew what happened to Jones until Josephine County District Attorney A. E. Reames said Jones had been murdered, based on a statement by a prisoner in the local jail, who said he knew the murderer and the gruesome details of the murder.
A hearing was scheduled to foreclose on a mortgage and release $780 from a safe when Jones appeared and identified himself.
Jones said he had been in Canada, but refused to say any more on the subject.
Source: "Henry Jones Not Murdered." Rogue River Courier, 1 May 1908 [Grants Pass Oregon] , p. 1. Historic Oregon Newspapers. Accessed 18 Nov. 2016. oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088281/1908-05-01/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1846&index=14&date2=2016&words=saloons&searchType=advanced&sequence=1&lccn=sn96088281&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=saloons&p