The body had been discovered by Willis Harvey, sometimes identified as the widowed doctor’s fiance and sometimes as a boarder, reportedly found Anna’s body at about 7 p.m., but delayed hours before notifying the police. Harvey was charged but later released.

Strangely, though the revolver, belonging to Clarence, was found resting in Anna’s left hand, the bullet had entered on the right and exited on the left.

Shaver told police that she had hired Johnson as a maid, and that the girl had committed suicide. But investigators concluded that Anna had died after Shaver had botched an abortion on her and that she had been shot after her death in order to convince authorities that Anna had committed suicide. The police tore up the floorboards in the house, searching for the remains of aborted babies.

An investigation later revealed that Anna had only come to Chicago and taken up residence in Shaver’s home about a week prior to her death.

A few days later, Hostetler met Clarence Shaver, who was Dr. Shaver’s son, on the elevated train. Hostetler didn’t explain how the topic came up, but said that Shaver offered to sell him some pills he was just beginning to market. “Dr. Eva Shaver’s Specific Relief for Ladies” was marketed at $1.75 a box. Clarence sold Hostetler two boxes for $3. Each box contained nine red pills and three white pills. The red pills were to be taken every two hours, and the white pills were to be taken once daily.

Hostetler reported this failure to Clarence, who showed him letters purportedly from satisfied customers. He told Hostetler that the pills could take a long time to work, as long as 14 weeks. He provided Hostleter with two more boxes of the pills.

When this new round of pills likewise failed to dislodge the fetus, Hostleter went back to Clarence, who told Hostleter to bring Anna to see his mother, Dr. Shaver, who employed a midwife and a nurse in her home. Evidently, Anna followed through and paid with her life.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.