New-York tribune., 1922-09-30
Police Seeking
Rich w oman as
Baby
Theory That Mildred VotIi
Was Stolen by Smartly
Dressed Stranger Acted
On in City-Wide Search
Neighbors Turn Up Clcws
Newspapers and Picture
Theaters Help; Parents
Worry Over Child's Health

The city wide search for three
months-old Mildred voth, who was
kidnaped from the sidewalk on West
125th Street on Wednesday afternoon,
made no progress yesterday, Detec-l
tives from the West 123d Street sta
tion traced numerous false clews with
out result; the newspapers and the
motion picture houses of the upper
East Side were called upon to CO.
operate, and the mother instinct in
thousands of women of that crowded
district made them energetic volun-
teer aids in the search, but all to no
avail.
The police have now definitely ac-
cepted the theory that the woman who
spoke to Mrs. Voth and admired the
child on the sidewalk is the woman
who. yielding to an insane impulse
wheeled the baby away while the
mother remained in the store. This
theory leads to the search, which Is
being prosecuted vigorously, for we'll
dressed woman Of about thirty-fve
years of age, with dark hair and COM
plexion and blue eyes, who wears a
black silk cape with quilted front
and brown hat with brown plume
is sought is apparently at least COM
fortably we'll off, and educated, and
she speaks with what passes on the
East Side for an English accent.
Silence Of Woman Held Suspicious
The police belief that this woman,
who admired the baby and compliment
ed the mother on the child's health
and beauty a few moments before the
kidnapping, and who was seen by Mrs.
Voth to leave the Woolworth store in
which she was shopping less than five
minutes before Mrs. Voth, Is the woman
who walked away with the baby, is
strengthened by the failure Of the
woman to whom the mother talked to
come forward and permit herself to
be questioned. The story of the kid
naping has been given such wide pub
licity, the police say, that the woman
have recognized the incident as the
one in which she figured. If she were
innocent, they argue, she would come
forward and establish the fact.
Meanwhile the father and mother
are concerned, next to the discovery
of the child with its probable state of
health. The baby had not been weaned,
and forced change Of diet, the dis
tracted mother said yesterday, would
fast to the hope that the child will be
found, but their attitude is almost de-
spairing. Mildred is the second child
Of three years of married life. The
first baby, a boy, died of pneumonia
at the age Of eighteen months.
Uncertainty Called Terrible"
"But would rather go through that,
all over again." the young father said
Yesterday. "than have this terrible un-
certainty"
The women Of the East Side have
thrown themselves earnestly into the
search. and the appearance Of strange
babies in localities where they are not
known leads to instant questioning of
their guardians. The enthusiasm with
which the women have taken up the
noon of Freda Ackert, twenty-four
years old, of 339 st. AIMS Avenue,
The Bronx. who offered to sell baby
buggy at Lexington Avenue and 123d
Street, q few blocks away from the
place where the Voth baby carriage
was discovered. The woman was sur
rounded by. mob which accused her
Of completely in the Voth kidnapping,
and Patrolman James Peavy, of the
East 12eth Street station, had some diff
fcalty in rescuing her. When Peavy /
and rushed into q six-story apartment /
building, running to the roof, where
she threatened to throw herself to the .
street If she was further moested. t
Peavy persuaded her to accompany
him Co the police station where she .
was charged with larceny She told |
Magistrate Oberwager in the Harlem
Court that she had taken the carriage
from 10th Street and Lexington Ave- |
-I> |,
owned 1t. She was held in $1,000 bail !
for hearing on Tuesday. The police |
were unable to connect her with the
Voth kidnapping.