Ray Hoover
Columbus Evening Dispatch, Wednesday, 12 April 1905, page 3
Cincinnati Ohio April 12-Mrs. Virginia Hoover of Marietta arrived in his city this morning in search of her son, First Lieutenant Ray Hoover of the Philippine Scouts, who has been missing from Fort Thomas since March 3. Hoover remained behind when the scout battalion went to Washington to attend the inauguration and has not been heard from since. The war department has been making every effort to locate hime, but has so far been unsuccessful. Hoover has been in the scouts for six years. He is a native of Marietta.
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Plain Dealer, Cleveland Oh, Wednesday, 12 April 1905, page 4
Marietta O. April 11-First Lieut. Ray Hoover of the Philippine Scouts of this city has been missing from Fort Thomas since March 3. After leaving St Louis after the fair, where he had been with the scouts, he went to Fort Thomas. He was scheduled to go to Washington DC to attend the inauguration of Roosevelt and was to meet his mother Mrs. Virginia Hoover, there. She learned that he was too ill to go and after returning to Marietta she wsa notified that he was missing. The police of Cincinnati have failed to locate him, as he has not been in morgues or hospitals. He had been in the service six years. Mrs. Hoover went to Cincinnati this evening to help conduct the search.
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Kentucky Post, Thursday, 13 April 1905, page 2
Lieut. Ray Hoover, Philippine Scouts, who has been missing from the battalion since he left his post on leave Feb 28, and failed to return to accompany the scouts to Washington for the inaugural parade, was formerly a noncommissioned officer, and served about five years in the Philippines. It was at first supposed that he went to Marietta O. to visit his mother, but is subsequently developed that he was missing from home and he has not since been heard from.
After he has been carried as absent without leave for six months an officer, under the regulations governing the matter, is dropped as a deserter.
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Cincinnati Post, Tuesday, 23 May 1905, page 10
"Something seems to tell me my son's body lies at the bottom of the Ohio River. I believe he was murdered and I am going to have the river dragged and stay here until I hear something definite about his fate," declared Mrs. Virginia Hoover, Marietta O. who is at the Avenel Hotel, Ft Thomas Ky. She seeks trace of her son, Ray Hoover, First Lieutenant in the battalion of Filipino Scouts, recently at Ft Thomas, who disappeared Feb 28.
Shortly before his disappearance Lieut. Hoover had written to his mother arranging to meet her at Washington DC, but he failed to go there with his company, and since then, Mrs. Hoover says, she has had no word. Lieut. Hoover visited his mother last July and August and she says she knows of nothing which would cause him to desert.
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Columbus Evening Dispatch, Tuesday, 23 May 1905, page 3
Cincinnati Oh May 23-Believing her son has been murdered and that his body, heavily weighted, now lies at the bottom of the Ohio river, Mrs. Virginia Hoover, a wealthy widow of Marietta O. arrived in this city to beging a systematic search for the remains. The son, for tidings of whom she is so anxiously searching, was Ray Hoover, a First Lieutenant in the battalion of Philippine scouts that was stationed at the St Louis exposition and at Ft Thomas early last February. On the night of February 28th, Hoover disappeared and no trace has ever been found of him. Mrs. Hoover is firmly convinced that her son has met with foul play and that he was murdered by someone who had a grudge against him.
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Cincinnati Post, Wednesday, 24 May 1905, page 10
Disappointed in finding that a patient sufferer in a Hamilton hospital was not her missing son, Lieut. Ray Hoover, Mrs. Virginia Hoover has returned to the Avenel Hotel, Ft Thomas and is again directing the search for her missing boys body in the Ohio River. Ft Thomas officials say Hoover was arrested for breach of discipline on Feb 28 and later disappeared. Unless he reports for duty by July 3, according to the War Department officials, he will be charged with desertion.
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Kentucky Post, Tuesday, 30 May 1905, page 5
Mrs. Virginia Hoover, mother of Lieut. Ray Hoover, the soldier who has been missing from Ft Thomas since Feb 28, called upon Coroner Cameron, of Cincinnati, yesterday, to inquire if any unknown bodies had been viewed by him lately. When told there had not been, she stated that she would see Coroner Higgins of Newport, and make an effort to have the remains of the man in the river near the Covington Water Works exhumed.
Mrs. Hoover fears that this body may be that of her long missing son. Last night she left for her home in Marietta O. but will return in a few days and prosecute the search for her boy. She feels certain he is dead and is completely prostrated with grief.
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Kentucky Post, Monday, 12 June 1905, page 4
Lieut. Ray Hoover, officer of the Filipino Scouts, missing since Feb 28, has been posted in the Army and Navy Journal as a deserter. Hoover's mother came here recently and made a search for his body, thinking he had been murdered.