Parents Wait As Hunt For Kidnapper Goes On

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30466, 13 June 1964, Page 2

Parents Wait As Hunt For Kidnapper Goes On

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, June 12. The search for a woman kidnapper posing as a nurse who took a one-day-old baby from his mother’s arms in a Chicago maternity hospital on April 26 is still going on, although hope of recovering the child has dwindled.

The heart-broken parents of Paul Joseph Fronczak wait helplessly in their Chicago home for any word from the team of F. 8.1. agents and city police that a clue has been found.

The boy was born on Sunday, April 26, to Mrs Dora Fronczak, aged 28, and kidnapped from Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital the next day. He was the first child of Mrs Fronczak and her husband, Chester, a 33-year-old aircraft mechanic. An earlier child, born prematurely, had died. Police are still sifting leads on the kidnapping but have come no closer to identifying the mysterious abductor who dressed in a nurse’s uniform, went to Mrs Fronczak’s bed and took the red-haired infant away. The bogus nurse told Mrs Fronczak she was taking him “down to see the doctor.” Went Into Room Hospital staff said they had seen the woman in the corridors of the hospital for some hours but thought she was a new staff member. Once, she went into Mrs Fronczak’s room and lifted the blanket surrounding the baby and looked at his face. Then she walked out without saying a word.

She later returned and took the baby away. It was not for some time that the hospital discovered the hoax and alerted the police. Appeal Broadcast

The baby’s father made an appeal over radio and television to the abductor to feed the baby a special formula. The hospital publicised the formula two hours after the kidnapping in the hope the abductor would listen to a radio or read a newspaper and feed the little boy properly. Police telephones rang constantly as tips poured in. Most of them eventually proved useless. A taxi-driver, Lee Kelsey, said he drove a white clad woman from the hospital. She was carrying a baby and told him: “The baby is sick and the doctors at the hospital couldn’t take care of it. I’m going to see my own doctor.'’ Kelsey said the woman said she was in a hurry. Police were unsuccessful in attempts to trace her and a tearful Mrs Fronczak broke down as she went before the nation’s television cameras to plead for the return of her baby. Several suspects were taken' to police headquarters for questioning but were released. Police Theory Police and doctors speculated that the woman, who may have had nursing training, had probably lost a child of her own and kidnapped the Fronczak infant to take its place. Chances of Identifying the child, if he is ever found, are becoming more and more difficult as the Chicago Hospital does not take hand or footprints of new-born infants. But the search will go on as F. 8.1. policy dictates that the file on an unsolved kidnapping is never closed.

Meanwhile, the Fronczaks continue their lonely, agon-

ising battle against the dread thought that they may never see their child again. Ten days after the birth of her child, Mrs Franczak returned home with her husband—and there sadly observed their second wedding anniversary. There was no joy in the home.