Jack Bush
Private First Class Jack Bush, age 24, Elkatawa, Breathitt County, Kentucky, joined the Kentucky National Guard at Hazard on 26 April 1917. He served with Company I, 2nd Kentucky Infantry until it was re-designated Company I, 149th Infantry at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. He was promoted to the rank of Private First Class on 1 September 1917. In December 1917, Bush was listed as AWOL and charged with desertion. On 10 February 1918, his dead body was found near Camp Shelby. The charges of AWOL and desertion were dropped when it was determined that Bush had been murdered and robbed.
Kentucky Soldier Found Murdered
Jacob Bush, of Breathitt County, Slain Near Camp Shelby.
Big Sandy News, 15 February 1918, p. 1.
Hattiesburg, Miss., February 11. — Jack Bush, aged twenty-five a member of Company I, 149th Infantry, formerly the First Kentucky, was found dead last night near the Squaw Camp, with a bullet hole in his head. Bush has been missing since December 21 and was supposed to have deserted, and his description had been sent to the civil and military authorities as being absent without leave. At that time he had $110 in his possession, and when the body was found the money was gone. The supposition is that he was robbed and murdered. Bush enlisted in May at Hazard, Ky., and his father is Cleas Bush, a well-to-do citizen of Elkatawa, Breathitt Co., Kentucky.
The camp authorities are looking for a man who was last seen with Bush and who is listed as a deserter. The spot where Bush was found is quite public and is passed many times a day by soldiers and civilians, which lead the camp authorities to believe that Bush was murdered somewhere else and kept concealed until an opportunity was found to place the body where it was discovered.