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For eleven days, the crew of the tug Kendell had been scouring every bay and beach for bodies and wreckage from the steamer Asia. On October 6th, the tug crew landed on Lonely Island. Approaching lightkeeper, Domonic Solomon, as he was setting fish nets, the Captain inquired if any dead had floated onto Lonely’s shores. "None," he was assured. Captain Richmond pressed the matter. Finally, Solomon conceded there had been one corpse, an unclothed woman, so badly decayed he had felt it best to bury her. The Captain demanded to see the grave but at first, Solomon stalled. Tension mounted.
A report in The Manitoulin Expositor continued the story:
The [group] found the body of a woman clothed and having a life-preserver on. It was near the water’s edge, and a board laying on top of it. No efforts had been made to bury it. On examining the corpse the name of Mrs. Woods was found on the corset and stockings. . . . The corpse had been badly decayed and was unrecognizable. The party removed the body further inland, and scraped gravel off a large flat rock and placed the body on it with a board for covering. This was the best form of burial they could make, as it was too decayed to be taken aboard the boat. They returned to where the lighthouse-keeper was fishing and told him the body had been robbed.
The search party had noted impressions of a necklace and finger ring on the bloated body. Domonic confessed to taking a pearl broach, two dollars and ten cents in silver, and a gold watch. Except for the watch, which his wife had taken to Manitowaning for repairs, he turned over all the items to the Captain. Just then, one of the search party, Mr. Ten Eyck, arrived with an empty wallet which he had discovered in the brush.
The keeper admitted taking it from the corpse and tearing the clasp off but said there was nothing in it, and that he simply dropped it down at the head of the corpse. Mr. Ten Eyck then told him where it was found, and accused him of throwing it as far as he could after taking its contents. The keeper seemed much confused, and finally admitted throwing it away, and said the reason he did so was because he was afraid it would be discovered. He then produced a clasp that had been torn from it.
A thorough search of the lightkeeper’s premises was carried out and brought to light several more items from the Asia: stools, chairs, axe-handles, a cabin door, a trunk and valise (both opened and empty), block and tackle, a water tank, a pillow-case, and a picture of a girl in a gilt frame. The discovery of three more life preservers, with a "disagreeable smell pervading", led the search party to believe more bodies were "secreted away on the island."
On October 16th, the Department of Marine and Fisheries stated that an inquiry into the alleged conduct of the Lonely keeper would be held. The local newspaper began to defend Mr. Solomon, saying the lack of regular communication between Lonely Island and Manitoulin or the mainland, prevented him from reporting the bodies. The paper also cleared him of wrongdoing because he had returned all the possessions, asserting that "his version puts quite a different face on his conduct."
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