Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1889 — STOLE HER OWN CHILD. [ARTICLE]

STOLE HER OWN CHILD.

A 12-Year-Olri Girl Forcibly Abducted from a School Room, Chicago, June 27.—A room in the Hayes public school at Leavitt and Walnut street* was the seme of a sensational case of kidnaping. Hettie, the 12-year-old daughter of John and Celia Thatcher, was stolen by her own mother The Thatchers had been divorced ten years ago and the father was given the custody of the child. Yesterday Mrs. Thatcher called at the school room door for the child, who would not go out to meet her. Mrs. Thatcher then dashed into the room, seized the little girl around the waist and started for the do; r. Tne teacher made a determined resistance. Mrs. Thatcher was much larger and more powerful than the teacher and succeeded in getting the dcor partially open. The teacher called for. the pupils to ass st her and they came in a body. Just at this mon ent a young man wearing a very heavy mustache, supposed to be false, entered the room and throwing them to one side took the struggling child from its mother’s arms and rushed down the stairway, followed by the mother. The man choked the child so she could not scream. A cabman stood with .the door of the vehicle open and they entered hurriedly, Mrs. Thatcher applied a handkerchief to the little girl’s face and she lay perfectly quiet and the cabman turned anl drove rapidly away. Boon after the child had l>een stolen a toy rang the door-bell at Hettie’s grandmother’s home and left a note which read: “Hettie is in good hands. I have taken her to the country. Her Mother.”