In the period before the boys' disappearance, Edward was regularly being visited by a doctor; historian David Baldwin extrapolates that contemporaries may have believed Edward had died either of an illness or as the result of attempts to cure him.
男孩们消失前，爱德华被一位医生规律性地拜访；史学家大卫·鲍德温推断同时代人可能已相信爱德华死于疾病或因试图治愈他的尝试而亡。