Los Angeles herald., 1891-09-12
MISS AVA FOUND.
She Is Taken in Custody in
Cincinnati.
Her Scanty Apparel Attracted
Attention.
A Dress Skirt and Stockings We're
All She Had On.
How She Came There Nobody Knows.
A Highly Sensational Story Told
By the WOman-Was She
Abducted?
Associated Press Dispatches.

whose disappearance from Chicago night
before last, created senation, was
found by the police here today acting in
an eccentric manner, and is held here
in the Cincinnati house of detention
She talks some times nationally and
some times with wild incoherence. She
says her name is Vera Ava, her native
place London, England, and that lately
she had been in Chicago, and some
body brought her from that city to this
place, but who it was, how and when
she was brought, she seems unable or
unwilling to tell.
1t was nearly 8 O'Clock when this
woman hailed cabman and ordered
him to drive to the St. Nicholas hotel.
She wore black wooden dress, was in
her stocking feet, and without q hat.
From her waist to above her shoulders
her body was bare. The st. Mich olas,
the Burnett and the Gibson houses all
refused to receive her. At the Gibson
the detective force took the case in
hand, and removed her at once to the
lIOuSo VI uoCCAblOus An cAduAiu1 OAoA
there revealed the fact that she had not
a cent and not scrap of paper on her
person, and that all her effects were her
black dress and her stockings.
The police have been unable to ascer-
tain how she got here. When asked
about it she would say; 81 came from
behind gray stone wall and went up
hill, but they pushed me down wherever
went up"
Nothing satisfactory can be learned
from her. She said she had been at
800 or 420 West Monroe street, Chicago.
Some officers think her insanity is
feigned. 1t is surmised here in certain
quarters that she is the late Madame
Diss de Bar, of New York. /,
Miss Ava told long story to an Asso-
ciated Press representative tonight. 1t
is quite as singular as the previous
stories about her doings. Miss Ava said
shc was Roman Catholicand was start.
ing four homes for homeless, degraded
children in Chicago. This displeased
Archbishop Feehan, who ordered her 10
a nunnery. She refused to go. He
then ordered her to appear before the
council at the Jesuit college church,
Wednesday. She went in a carriage,
accompanied by Mrs. Bolton. On en-
tering the church, she found Archbishop
Feehan and Father Kelly present. They
presented her paper which they told
her to sign. She refused, saying that as
future American citizen she meant to
use her money as she pleased. There
upon father Kelly arose and said: This
has gone far enough"
At that moment two men came in at
a side door, and threw cloth over her
face. After that she. knew nothing more
until she felt as if she was on the lake.
She thinks that was last night, and that
she had been overdosed with chloro-
form that was being applied as a restor-
ative. The next she remembers was at
about O'Clock this afternoon, when she
was taken from the depot in q carriage
to certain place in this city, though
she did not then know what city it was.
She denies that she is the spook
priestess, Odelia Diss De Barr, of New
York, as has been asserted.
Chicago, Sept. 1.-THE sergeant in
charge of the central police station this
evening received a telegram from the
chief OF the Cincinnati police, announc-
ing that he had the missing Miss Ava
in charge, and asking what was to be
done with her. The sergeant replied:
Release Miss Ava. We don't want
! her."
The sergeant said to a reporter: "The
only effect of the telegram is to satisfy
our curiosity as to Miss Ava's where
abouts. There is no charge against her,
hence we cannot order her arrest"
"The strangest thing about the case"
said Detective Lieutenant Shea tonight,
Sis that this Miss Ava, who is written up
as a fakir, has refused money from those
she interested in her charitable work.
A caller at the station today, a minister
whose name cannot divulge, told me
that charitably inclined church mem
ber offered the woman $1,000, but she
refused it, saying she had plenty OF
money. The woman had often stated
that goods had been shipped to her
from England, but the officials OF the
customs house say the woman had never
been near there"
A curious feature of the mystery is
that Miss Ava is reported to have said
she feared she would meet fate similar
to that of DIR. Cronin. Father Kelly upon
whom she called just prior to her disap'
pearance, is the brother of a man whose
arrest in st. Louis, as Cronin suspect
caused sensation at the time. He was
speedily released, there being no proc
against him.
CHICAGO, Sept. PA reporter at an
early hour this Saturday morning
called at the Jesuit college, and sent W
word about Miss Ava's story, telegraphee
from Cincinnati. Father Kelly SEN
word back: Ridiculous. Deny it il
my name"