Robert Dittmer
Dec. 23, 1931-Oct. 16, 1943
Robert Dittmer, 11, found in River at Buchanan Dam
Niles police and the county sheriff’s department were puzzled today over the mysterious death of Robert L. Dittmer Jr., 11, who disappeared Oct. 11 from his home at 1250 South Eleventh Street.
The youth’s body was discovered at 5:30 this morning by Ernest Young, employee of the Indiana and Michigan Electric Company in the St. Joseph River at the company’s Buchanan Dam.
According to William Pifer, coroner, who was called to the scene, the body had apparently been in the water since the time of the boy’s disappearance.
The boy disappeared from home Sunday night, October 10, and was reported missing to police by his parents the next day. It was first believed he had run away with thee other boys who disappeared the same day and who were later picked up by Chicago police.
Questioned upon their return to Niles, the three boys told police that Robert had not accompanied them and they knew nothing of his whereabouts.
To Return at 7
The boy’s parents told a Star reporter this morning that on the day he disappeared they had given him money to attend the Ready Theater in the afternoon while they went to the Riviera.
They youth agreed to return home at 7 that night, but they did not see him again. They said one of the boy’s neighborhood friends, Richard Cook, told them later that he saw young Dittmer just before 7 when he was almost home and that the latter told Cook he intended to return downtown. So far as is known, it was the last time he was seen.
Police records show that he was one of a group of boys who had entered the Knights of Columbus hall a few weeks earlier, but the record does not indicate that he was involved in causing any damage.
Runaway Story Unconfirmed.
One Niles youth is reported to have told that he had borrowed a brother’s motorcycle and, accompanied by young Dittmer, rode it to Chicago where, the boy said, it was wrecked. He reported that Dittmer had intended to continue to Texas, but police could not find any evidence to confirm the story.
Coroner Pifer said this morning there are no indication of broken bones, and no inquest is planned.
Besides his parents, the drowned youth is survived by four sisters, Margaret Ann, Betty Lou, Diana Lee and Patricia Jean, all at home; three grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Walter, Buchanan and Mrs. Ann Dittmer, Niles and two great-grandmothers.
He was born in Niles, Dec. 23, 1931. A student in the fifth grade at Central School. He had lived here all his life.
The body is in the Pifer Funeral Home where services will be conducted Friday at 2 by the Rev. J. Kenneth Hoffmaster. Burial will be at Silverbrook Cemetery.
Submitted by family member; publication details unknown