Norwich bulletin., 1913-03-04
Mrs. Mills Has
 Left Hospital
SLIPS AWAY WITHOUT NOTIFY
 ING POLICE.
HER CASE PUZZLING
Police Still Working on Footpad The to Make Much Headway

Chicago, March 3.-Mrs. Mabel Mills, wife of real estate dealer of San Antonio. Texas, whose mysterious loss of more than $40,000 presumably either by robbery or accident Saturday night, stirred the police of Evanston, a sub urb. to an extended investigation of the ctrcumsta tances, today left the hos pita1 to which she had been taken when found dazed and injured and her pres- ent whereabouts is as much of @ mys- tery as that of the large sum of money which so strangely disappeared.
 May Have Gone to St. Louis.
 Mrs. Mills left early in the after noon without giving the police notice although she had promised Chief Shaf- fer she would communicate with him when she decided to depart. The chief did not learn that she had left until nightfall, when he telephoned to in quire about her condition. He was then told she had been gone several hours. The belief at present is that Mrs. Mills left Chicago tonight for St Louis, where she had previously told the police she had some business to transact.
 Police More Puzzled Than Ever.
 Searching the ground where Mrs. Mills says she struggled for more than an hour and half in the snow and under porches where it was hoped the money. all in $1,0oo bills, might have been blown by the gale. the police af-
 
 pitaI, announced they had discovered these facts, which they said only pug zled them.
 Could Not Have Been Unconscious.
 Mrs. Mills says she became con- scfous only when she was being picked up on the porch of Mrs. A. J. Cooper to which she had craw1ed, whereas Chief of Police Shaffer of Evanston said he had good authority for stat ing that the bruise on the back of the womans head was not sufficient to have rendered her unconscious and the physicians at the hospital said Mrs. Mills could not have lost consciousness from any other cause.
 Indifferent About Loss of Money.
 The envelope in which Mrs. Mills said she carried the money on the street and which Vgas found empty ka q not been sealed, although 1t was one of the regular safety deposit envelopes taken from a hotel where she had been stopping and wheEe the clerk said he had seen the money sealed.
 Mrs. Mills told the police she was indifferent about the loss of the money and said she wanted to leave the city She announced she might be in St Louis by tomorrow. After going thor ough1y into the case Chief Shaffer said he had no basis upon which to make any arrests.
 Police Chief skeptieai.
 T told Mrs. Mills that being a prac- t1ca1 business woman accustomed to handle large sums of money, as she said she had in her real estate deal ings in San Antonio, it appeared to me unusual that she should have ven- tured to walk along 8 dark suburban street with s41,00 in cash in her pock- etbook," said Chief Shaffer. She only repeated her previous story that she had been to dinner at the home of Mrs. Stevens, a friend, that she was on her way to a railway station when. discovering Vshe had left her ticket and some money at Mrs. Stevens, she returned to get what she had left It was, on her way back that she said she lost the money. The woman does not insist she was robbed. She says she became unconscious and when re- V1Ved the money was gone.
 Lapse of Time Unaceounted For
 Tn the face of the circumstances, I was told at the hospital that the blow on the woman's head whether from a fall or from 8 fist, was not severe enough to have more than one hour and thirty minutes elapsed between the time she started to walk back to Mrs. Stevens and the time she was found on Mrs. Cooper's porch a block away from Mrs. Stevens home
 Tn an envelope which Mrs, Mills left at Mrs. Stevens home and for which she was returning I found $1,s50. The envelope was sealed and
  Texas Do not open until Wednes- day That opened up another line of inquiry.
 Still Working on Footpad Theory.
 Mrs. Mills said she was going to St Louis and then to Kansas City and she intended to send the money to tMr. Ball, her banker from Kansas City. Why she instructed that the en- Yelope should not be opened until Wednesday was not clearly explained for if she sent the envelope from Kan sas City it would not have reached San Antonio before Wednesday un- less she meant Wednesday of next week. She said she had set aside that much money to pay a bill.'
 In spite of the puzzling features of the case. Chief Shaffer said he was continuing to work on the theory that footpads saw Mrs. Mills handle the money on an elevated train and fol- lowing her. knocked her down when she walked up a dark street