Five Days Gone: The Vanishing of Katie Hackworth
A mother waits for word, a matron's memory keeps shifting, and the letters that might explain where a schoolgirl went have already been handed away.
Five days have now passed, and still the anxious mother of Katie Hackworth has not heard a word that will give her any intimation of the exact whereabouts of her child. Mrs. Ryther, who took a letter to the girl at the Pacific school last Wednesday morning, was not at home yesterday, but it appears that she had a second interview with R. D. Arper, the step-father of Katie Hackworth, the night before last. Mr. Arper said yesterday that Mrs. Ryther reiterated her statement that the letter she received containing the message for Katie was from Mrs. Kennedy, of Tacoma. She did not know Mrs. Kennedy's initials, but said she was a dentist's wife.
Mr. Arper said that Mrs. Ryther had a very poor memory about the contents of the letter, and when asked for permission to see it, replied that she gave it to Katie Hackworth, together with the enclosed note.
Mr. Arper also said that he had discovered that about three weeks ago Mrs. L. Harris, the matron of the Children's Home at Tacoma, made a trip to this city and visited Katie at the Pacific school. After the close of school she took the child to some of Mrs. Harris' friends in this city.
Mr. Arper also said that he had learned positively that the young man Barrie was in Seattle last Wednesday and returned to Tacoma on the late afternoon train. As far as he could learn, Barrie traveled alone in the baggage car. He has also found out that a man answering Barrie's description has been seen in the vicinity of the street power house frequently within the past few weeks.
Mrs. Arper says she would feel greatly relieved if she could only learn where the child is located.
“Mrs. Arper says she would feel greatly relieved if she could only learn where the child is located.”
A missing child, a chain of adults with conflicting stories, and a paper reduced to reporting a stepfather's guesses: it is a template that still fills true-crime coverage today, and the child at its center is usually the last person anyone can locate. What survives here is not an answer but a mother's sentence — the same plea families of the missing make into microphones now. The institutional thread, a Tacoma children's home matron taking a Seattle pupil out for the afternoon, is the kind of detail a modern investigation would pull phone records for.
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