The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-17
KIDNAPPED CHILD FOUND
MAY CHARLOTTE STEVENS TOLEN
FROM MOTHER SIX YEARS AGO.
Sheriff Boone, of FL PasO, Tex, Comes
After the Little GirI-Shc Was
at the Hadley Home.

Through the interest of an indianapolis
woman in a little girl at the Hadley Home,
near Danville. the efforts of Sheriff Boone,
of FL Paso, Tex, and Detectives Gerber and
Dugan, May Charlotte Stevens, eleven
years of age, Will tomorrow be restored
TO her mother, from whom she was taken
six years ago.
AT that time Mrs. Anna Stevens, a widow,
kept a boarding and rooming house in r.
Paso. One day there came TO her for ac-
commodations a young woman and her
husband, who were connected with a trav-
cling show. Mrs. Stevens had a daughter,
Charlotte. five years of Pee, to whom the
new tenants became dch attached. The
child also became attached to her new
acquaintance. One night the child dis
appeared and at the same time the man
and woman left the city.
Search for the little girl was unavail-
ing at that time, and it was kept up year
after year.
Four years ago Miss Emma Brazier. who
was interested in charitable work at La
fayette. became interested in a girl whom
she found in Wise's Variety Theater. The
girl was the missing Stevens girl, but her
identity at that time did not become known.
The woman who had the custody of the
child was known only as Jeanette" bat
she afterwards married a man named Ben
nett. She left Lafayette and came TO In
dianapolis, and a few months later was ar
rested for KIDNAPPING two children near
Danyille. and was sentenced to a term IN
the Woman's Prison, which she entered
June %, 1896. as Mary Wallace. She was
discharged in March, 1855, under the name
of Mamie Quinatt.
Mice Drnufar nftar leaning tho child for
about a year, sent her to the Hadley Home,
where she remained until yesterday, wholly
ignorant of the efforts of her mother to
find her.
ATTACHED TO THE GIRL
Recently an Indianapolis woman visited
the home and became attached TO the little
girl. who is said to be unusually bright
end rather pretty. Incidentally the WON
an asked about her daily life and the gir
told of having been taken from her home
i'm Texas and travelling about the coun-
try with a woman and a man who played
at small theaters. The interest deepeneC
and the woman wrote to a sheriff in Texas
inquiring about the disappearance of {
girl by the name of Stevens The sheriff
remembered the case at FL Paso, an,
transmitted the letter TO Sheriff Boone
The story in the letter was such as TO leaC
the sheriff and the mother to believe tina
the daughter so long lOSI ndu Deen lOunu
and Sheriff Boone, who has already Spen
about $500 of mis- own money in assisting
in the search, came to Indianapolis Frida.
and, securing the assistance of Detectives
Gerber and Dugan, went to the Hadlel
Home.
There the girl repeated her story anC
there seemed TO be 10 doubt that she Wa!
the little girl taken from Mrs. Anna Stev
ems six years ago. She was unable TO re
member the name of the town in whiCl
she lived at the time, but remembered
many other incidents of her child life
which were without confederation furthc
than the memory of the sheriff, but wer'
satisfactory To the managers OF the home
The little girl did not know at the tim
she left III Paso what was being dom
with her, and while being kept closet!
guarded she was taught parts in the per
Torrance of the man and woman and sool
appeared regularly with them.
She was taken yesterday by Sheriff Boon,
from the Hadley Home and tomorrow vii
be with her mother in Eel Paso.