The Abduction and Drugging of Lody Wirt
A young girl is kidnapped at a local depot and transported to Seattle, sparking a criminal investigation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A physician was called last night to see Lody Wirt, the girl who was abducted at the Northern Pacific depot in this city and taken to Seattle, and who was taken suddenly ill. The physician stated this morning that he had examined her very closely, and from the condition of the girl did not in the least doubt that she had been drugged. She was very nervous during the examination and talked wildly on various subjects. Her abductors, Mr. and Mrs. Barney Brooks, are confined in the county jail. Their examination is set for tomorrow at 2 o'clock.
“The physician stated this morning that he had examined her very closely, and from the condition of the girl did not in the least doubt that she had been drugged.”
This incident reflects the precarious safety of young travelers in the 19th-century transit hubs of the Pacific Northwest. Today, such cases are rare but echo ongoing concerns about human trafficking and public safety near transit corridors.
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