The Girl Who Didn't Come Back: Katie Hackworth's Vanishing

The mystery regarding the disappearance of Katie Hackworth, the 14-year-old daughter of Mrs. A. C. Arper, of 1212 Second Street, still remains unsolved. W. H. Hopkins, brother of Mrs. L. L. Barrie, matron of the Children's Home at Tacoma, where Katie had lived for a long time before being taken home, denies that he has been in love with the girl and says he knows nothing of her disappearance. Mrs. Barrie says her brother could not be implicated in the disappearance of the girl, but does not say positively that she knows nothing of the child's whereabouts.

Hopkins said he had been paying attention to one of the servant girls at the home and thought she had been mistaken for Katie. He acknowledged that he had visited Katie in Seattle some time before, but said he went to see why she did not come to Tacoma as expected. He said he had no idea where the girl was. Mrs. Barrie said her brother made his home at the Children's Home and was constantly at work, and had not been out of the city the previous week.

A Post-Intelligencer reporter called at the Mission Home, 813 Alder Street. Mr. Ryther said he knew nothing of the girl's whereabouts, but indirectly admitted that she was still in the city in safe hands and would be heard from in a few days, in the form of an application to the courts to have a guardian appointed for her. He said the girl was not satisfied with her surroundings and the treatment she had received at home, hence her desire to secure a guardian.