Looking back: Men offer to sell human body to Rexburg doctor and missing woman found with her leg frozen to the ground

IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of March 27 to April 2 in east Idaho history.

1900-1925

PLANO — A Plano man was killed in Idaho Falls by highway robbers, The Teton Peak reported on April 2, 1903.

“Sunday, the 29th, was a very sad day for the people of Plano for they were all gathered together at the Plano meeting house to pay their last respects to one of their well-loved friends and neighbors, Mr. Joseph Brown,” the paper said. “There was never such a large funeral held in Plano before.”

People came from Ogden, Utah, as well as St. Anthony, Teton City “and in fact, from nearly every part of the county.”

“About 80 teams followed the remains to the Plano Cemetery,” the article mentioned.

The local paper said “some of the most eloquent speaking was rendered.” The speakers spoke “highly of Brown as an honest and upright man.”

“It was a very pitiful scene to see his loving wife and children sitting around the casket of their father and husband who left home but a few days before hale and hearty.”

Brown was reportedly on his way to attend a funeral for a family member when he was shot and killed.

1926-1950

REXBURG — Two men came to a Rexburg doctor’s office and offered to sell him a body “to be used for medical research,” according to the Idaho Falls Post Register.

The men — according to the doctor whose name was not made public — said they had the body in the back of the “old model car” they were driving.

The doctor said he told the men he was not interested and did not go out to the car to see the body, the paper reported in a March 31, 1935 article.

After the men left, the doctor went to Idaho Falls to report what happened to Sheriff Harry Meppen. Meppen said this was “one of the strangest reports that he has received during his many years as Bonneville County sheriff.”

The doctor said one of the men was “well-dressed” and the other one was in overalls. An investigation to find the men immediately got underway.

1951-1975

RIRIE — A “heavy fire” broke out on a ranch near Ririe, The Rigby Star wrote on April 1, 1965.

The fire happened on the John Wheeler Ranch and destroyed five tractors, a bulldozer, a baler, powerbox and miscellaneous tools and items. All equipment was stored in a metal shed where the fire started.

The fire was reported at 6:25 a.m. but was not under control until around 4 p.m.

“Mr. Wheeler reported that he had built a fire in the shed, going into the house and returning a short time later to find the shed in flames,” the article states.

The paper said there was $70,000 worth of damage.

1976-2000

POCATELLO — A woman was found lying beside her car with one of her legs frozen to the ground, an article in the Idaho State Journal dated March 28, 1977, stated.

Esther Koehler, 82, was missing nearly 10 hours before being found “apparently suffering from exposure.”

She had become stuck near the Whispering Pines area on Pocatello Creek Road. She was reported missing earlier in the day when she failed to come home after leaving Lynn Bridger’s Body Shop where “she had driven an employee who had earlier returned her car.”

“Employees there said she seemed confused upon leaving the shop,” the article noted.

Koehler was listed in critical condition at the Bannock Memorial Hospital’s intensive care unit.