THE KIDNAPPED HEIRESS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8805, 6 May 1907, Page 3

THE KIDNAPPED HEIRESS.

Strange Adventures. Press Association.—Copyright. Mblbouene, May 4. It is stated that the little heiress Dorothy Knipe is on her way from Vancouver in charge of her father.

A couple of months ago London papers told of the frantic efforts of Mrs Itoderic Knipe, of Melbourne, Australia, to discover, in London, some trace of her kidnapped nine-year-old daughter Muriel Doris Knipe. According to the accounts, the child, who is heiress to a considerable fortune, has been “ twice carried off, upon a flight of twelve thousand miles on each occasion—once from England to Australia, then from Australia to England. Then she has disappeared upon a third wandering. In December, 1904, it is added, Mrs Knipe and her husband and child came to London. Amid disagreements which ensued, the father removed the girl from the mother’s care. Mrs Knipe began legal proceedings to regain access, and the father, who was ordered to produce the child, also employed a firm of solicitors and resisted the mother’s claim. After six or seven months of Chancery litigation, Mr Justice Buckley ordered that the mother have access to her daughter, and that the father pay tho Costs; but this was ineffectual, as the child vanished before the decision was given. Mrs Knipe, hearing by cablegram tea t the father and the child had reached Melbourne, followed immediately and fonnd them. '-The child had come to London originally with her parents in the luxury of the P. and O. saloon. She had been taken back in the lessor comfort of the Orient steerage, A truce was agreed upon, and lasted a few months. lint another flight across the ocean was awaiting the little heiress. One September morning mother and child disappeared from Melbourne, and sailing by a Blue Anchor liner, via Cape Colony and Las Palmas for England, reached London on 13th November. The husband pursued the fugitives. Suspecting this would happen, Mrs Knipe was laying plans to educate the child m the security of a convent known only, ns sho hoped, to herself. In consultation with her solicitor she decided temporarily upon Worthing, and the school which is controlled by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Paris. : The husband, to get a clue, kept a watch on Mrs Knipe’s bankers in the city, knowing she would have to come there for money. She came, and was told by one of the officials that Mr Knipe had been seen outside the bank. She hailed a hansom and drove away, changed to another hansom on the way, stopped at Marshall and Snelgrove’s, hurried through the shop and out by a different door, and drove to the Queen’s Gah?Hotel The track, if it had been found was undoubtedly lost. Mrs Knipe subsequently went to live herself at Worthing, and took there, from Bournemouth, her mother, as an additional sentry over tho child. But Mrs Knipe thinks the transference of the mother who must have been under suryeillanco. gave the pursuer his clue. A few days afterwards, at noon, the little girl came gleefully out of the conventschool to meet her grandmother. A tall man, in a motor cap and heavy overcoat, with its collar turned up to the ears, suddenly pushed the elderly lady aside, and exclaimed, “ Come, Muriel,” lifted the child, ran with her to the waiting iandau, in which was a woman dressed like a widow, and the throe wore driven away. When the affrighted grandmother reached the corner of the road she saw the vehicle going at a rapid pace to Shoreham. Tho cabman has given his name and address, and stated that ho discharged his fares at Shore! am Bailway Station. Since then Mrs Knipe h as not seen her daughter. So the above cablegram, if true, marks another stage in this worldpursuit.—Post.