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. 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 strasberger 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 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. Apparently, no screams or cries for help were heard by any of her friends yet strangely they say just before she disappeared she'd been hearing voices from the other world

well a month passes by and the newspapers say the mystery is no nearer a solution the city council has offered a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars for the girl dead or alive but thus far nothing has come of it

well of course exhaustive searches had been carried out in the aftermath of her vanishing they say a search widespread in its character and thorough in its

scope by trained detectives, yet one and all confessed themselves beat. There is absolutely

nothing on which to work. All anyone knew was that on the evening of Gertrie's disappearance,

she'd left her home with her group of friends

to the Red River, just a short distance away. For approximately half an hour they skated on the ice,

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