The team from the University of Kansas researching the former “Bloody Bender” property in southern Labette County has already made some discoveries.

 

According to the latest information shared by the student researchers and their lead investigator, broken bits of pottery and old square nails have been found, offering a chance of finding the exact coordinates of the cabin once occupied by the Bender murderers as well as burial sites of their victims.

 

Kansas Geological Survey Principal Investigator Dr. Blair Schneider and her team of six students have officially begun their two-week “field school” at the property, using a variety of geophysical methods including ground-penetrating radar, magnetics and electrical technologies to image the subsurface to identify points of interest for future excavation and other areas that might help more accurately tell the story of life and death in the Bender era of the late 1800s.

 

Area residents are invited to attend a special presentation, “Unearthing the Bloody Bender Mystery,” this Friday, July 14, at 6:30 p.m. at Memorial Hall at 410 N. Penn in Independence where Dr. Schneider will serve as a panelist and share the team’s early findings.