New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-04-02
MISSING GIRL BACK,
TELLS TWO STORIES
Jessie Wood First SD
She Was Drugged and
Kidnapped.
RAN AWAY BECAUSE
BEHIND AT SCHOOL
Assert Parents in Statement
Cipher Note Believed to Hold
Key to Mystery.

From a st1f Correspondent OF The Tribune
Ridgefield Park, y. j., April Miss
Jessie Wood, the pretty fifteen-year- old
girl VINO mysteriously disappeared
from here last night, returned 10 her
home this evening in a state Of col
lapse. She told story. the police say
Of having been kidnapped by three men
in a big red automobile.
Late last night the girls parents
gave out the following statement, say
ing that it was exactly as she had
given it to them:
Jessie says she had hoped TO be sent
10 high school i'm New York last Sep
tember and was so disappointed when
sent to the village high school that she
felt too dissatisfied TO do her work. and
neglected her studies and even STAYED
away from her classes without letting
her parents know. Then when the
quarterly examinations, scheduled for
to-day, began to approach she became
frightened l-st she should be found out.
Parents Accuse Chum.
Her chum, lone Lenz. knowing how
she felt, had been persuading her to
run away and go West, and had helped
her make a suit and hat to go in. Last
thursday night she went to her
friends and borrowed the girls suit
case to put the suit and hat in.
Last night when she left home she
had the suitcase with her with the suit
in 1t, but her mother was in the kitchen
and did not see her go. She took the
9:O9 train over the West Shore TO New
York, and then to the Grand Central
Terminal. When she found herself alone
she became alarmed and was still more
frightened when she read the notice OF
the Travellers Aid Society.
she says she spent the night in the
women's waiting room at the Grand
Central depot, and when morning came
she still lacked decision as to what
steps TO take. and so hung about the
station. not knowing where to go or
what to do.
Then, when the newspapers came
out and she read Of the trouble she was
causing at home, she determined to
return and did so. On the way she
threw away the suitcase and also the
suit and hat made for going away in
Miss Wood who is rather large for
her age, lives with her father. Percy
Wood, in Teaneck Road, here. and
when she walked up the front porch Of
her home shortly after o'clock this
evening. she tainted.
2. ]. Warner, policeman, recognized
the girl and carried her into the house.
DR.. Corn was summoned, and the girl
recovered sufficiently to tell the police
that shortly after she left her home last
night to go TO meeting of the Camp
Fire Girls she was captured by the
three men in the big red automobile
and taken to New York. The girl had
just reached the corner of Wynant ave-
nue., she said, which is four blocks from
her home, when the car came speeding
along.
Drugsed in Auto, She Says.
Two of the men jumped out. she said,
and one Of them placed handkerchief
saturated with some drug over her
mouth. The next thing Miss Wood re-
membered, according to her story. was
waking up in the automobile in a ga
rage
The driver Of the automobile, she de-
clared, according to the police, was
asleep in the seat. She had regained
consciousness sufficiently, she went on,
TO crawl to the street, where police
man picked her up and took her TO his
home. After she had rested long
enough to recover her strength the po-
liceman took her to the West Shore
Continued on second page. third column.