The Whidbey Island Rancher Who Vanished Without a Trace
John G. Phinney has been missing for days from his ranch at Penn Cove. A search party aboard the steamer Idaho has not returned, and neighbors now fear he drowned — or met foul play.
The whereabouts of John G. Phinney, who has been missing for some time from his ranch on Whidbey Island, are yet unknown. The party that left on Thursday on the steamer Idaho has not returned and is not expected for a day or two. Capt. F. J. Burns, of this city, who is a brother-in-law of Mr. Phinney, thinks he will turn up all right. He says that Mr. Phinney has a ranch at Penn's Cove, on the island, and may possibly have gone there, or is somewhere else on the island. Some feel a little more concerned over his disappearance, and think he has either been drowned or has been foully dealt with.
“Some feel a little more concerned over his disappearance, and think he has either been drowned or has been foully dealt with.”
Whidbey Island remains a patchwork of scattered rural properties where a person can slip out of sight between ferries, and missing-person cases are still among the hardest for small county sheriffs to close. In 1895, with no phone lines and one steamer a week, a disappearance could linger as rumor for weeks. The split here — a relative's reassurance against the neighbors' quiet dread — is a very modern tension.
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