The headlines of Chicago's Interocean newspaper of January 1903 asks, was this girl abducted by her dead lover's spirit?

The state of Minnesota is aghast over the sensational disappearance of Gertrude Strasberger,

21 years old. Her strange fading away forms a dark and impenetrable mystery.

They continue, was the young woman dematerialized?

Many believe she was.

They shudder, and in whispers, declare her fading away in a translation to the spirit world.

Spiritualists say Miss Strasburger departed by a ghostly flight.

As the details of her disappearance came out, the newspaper wrote,

Some believe she was lured into the spirit land by the shade of a former lover, who died years ago.

Her vanishing is, they say, the weirdest and most puzzling event.

On the day Gertrude disappeared.

December the 2nd, she'd gone with a party of friends to skate on the frozen river close to her home.

The Chicago newspaper says she was left alone for less than five minutes.

In those five minutes, she met her fate, whatever it may have been.

Well, obviously, the simplest answer would be that she'd fallen through some cracked ice on

the frozen river.

However, the newspaper says she was not drowned, that is certain, for there was no open water

for miles.

She also didn't run away because they say there were no tracks in the snow.

Detectives say she could not have retreated from the place. Every possible clue has been

followed to the end, but each reveals the fact that the girl dropped out of sight while

skating on the river.

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