From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 3/23/1945, p. 8, c. 3

Compensation Is Denied Widow Here

Holding that the death of John E. Krengel, patternmaker at the Tredegar Company, was not an accident of an occupational nature, the State Industrial Commission in an opinion yesterday denied his widow, Mrs. May A. Krengel, compensation benefits under the State’s workmen’s compensation laws.

Krengel’s body was found in the Tredegar plant several months ago and efforts of police detectives have failed to solve the mystery of his death, although robbery was believed to have been the motive.

The commission’s opinion in the case was handed down yesterday by Parke P. Deans, the chairman, who discounted the contentions of counsel for Mrs. Krengel that her husband may have been slain by an intruder in the Tredegar plant to avoid discovery.

This theory was based upon the fact that the company for which Krengel worked at the time he was killed was engaged in war work, but the commission found that at the time of his death “the necessity for keeping secret any national defense work had long since passed.”

Evidence at the hearing before the commission was to the effect that Krenel was engaged in making a pattern for a hose reel to be used in his home at the time he was slain and also that he was accustomed to carrying considerable cash on his person.

“The only conclusion that can be reached is that he was assaulted for the purpose of personal robbery,” the commission said.

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