Suicide Mystery Startles Community; A weird tale of mental unbalance caused by religious fanaticism was closed Tuesday morning as the remains of Leland Agee, 40, local farm laborer, were found in a West Stanislaus Irrigation District lateral after a three-day search. Foiled in an attempt to take his whole family, including himself and wife and five children "on a ride to see St. Peter," he committed suicide early Saturday morning. But the mysterious circumstances surrounding the case had officers and volunteer searchers up in the air until the body was finally found Tuesday morning. Although changed in some particulars later, Mrs. Agee's original, account of the affair was as follows – Agee aroused his family about 3 a. m. at their ranch home west of Westley, telling them they were going to see St. Peter. His wife, Elva, 28, also under the spell of religious hallucinations, was ready for the trip and picked up their 5-mos. old baby and bundled four larger children into the car. Evidently determined to kill the whole family, Agee drove out the Howard road toward Ingram Canyon until, at a point not far from the old airfield, he aimed for a power line pole. The first one only grazed a hub cap, but, according to his wife's story, he laughed loudly and aimed directly for the next one, crashing into it head-on and breaking it off. High-tension wires fell on the metal top of the car and punctured it with holes as the current burned through the metal, and it seemed a miracle that the whole seven were not electrocuted. Mrs. Agee was knocked senseless by the crash, incurring a fractured nose and badly bruised knee, as well as other cuts and bruises. When she recovered consciousness, Agee had disappeared, "No use looking for him," she said, "he's gone to heaven." And the children also declared that he had gone off across the field to, vanish in the night on his way to heaven.

Return Home -- Making their way back home on foot, Mrs. Agee put the children to bed again. In the morning, she started to walk to Patterson with the family and was given a ride part way by a truck driver. Chief of Police Carl Busengdal was notified when they came into town and the investigation started, with Traffic Officer E. L. McCabe and

Constable C. W. Kirk also taking part. First fear was that Agee had been dazed by the crash and might have dropped into the ditch or be found in some nearby field. So a large force started a search and in nearby No. 1 Lateral of the irrigation system was shut off to enable the canal to be searched. But no trace and the mystery deepened. Possibility that Agee might have gone off to a convention of the Jehovah's Witnesses, the sect with which he had been affiliated, was considered, but was disproved when members returned from the trip. And so the mystery stood, with Mrs. Agee's contention that they would never find him -- he had been taken up into the heavens by God, seeing to have the best of the officers' more material conclusions that he must be somewhere.