KIDNAPPED GIRL RECOVERED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12657, 10 September 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

KIDNAPPED GIRL RECOVERED.

£40,000 RANSOM SAID TO HAVE BEEN DEMANDED, Chicago, August 3.—A man named William ■ Jensen and his wife Lave been arrested by the Federal> authorities here charged with kidnapping a Danish I girl about five years old. Danish Govern- i ment officials who have been searching for | the couple for some time past found them ! here yesterday, and had them taken into ; custody. Extradition proceedings have been commenced. The Jensens declare that they formerly lived in Fredericia, Denmark, and were engaged in the fish business. Being j childless, they became attached to the child Elsie, who is the daughter of a couple named Gellert. They assert that she was practically deserted" bv her parents, and that out of pity they took the child, without 'formal adoption. Herr Jensen eventually sold his business and, accompanied by his wife and Elsie, sailed for America without informing the parents. But a private detective agency which has been working on the case tells a different story. The detectives declare that Elsie has been stolen and held for a ransom of £40,000. They say that Herr Gellert is one of the richest men in Denmark. Two years ago he had a valet named Jensen and a young nursemaid, between whom an attachment was formed. They decided.to go to America, and suddenly disappeared with the child. Elsie, has been sent to Philadelphia, in charge of two detectives, who will take the next steamer to Denmark. Copenhagen, August 3.—-Some years ago Herr Gellert, a- tradesman of Fredericia, lost his wife, and finding himself unable to attend properly to the education of his daughter Elsie, entrusted her to his friends, Herr Wilhelm Jensen and his wife, fislidealers, of Fredericia; Recently Herr Gellert asked that his daughter, who had reached her sixth year, might be given back to him. So intense was the grief of the Jensens at the idea of parting with the child, to which they had become deeply attached, that he allowed Elsie to remain a month longer! Profiting by this respite the Jensens disappeared, taking Elsie with them and stating that they had gone to Nestved, in Iceland. T3ut Herr Gollert's suspicions were aroused, and finding that in reality the couple had loft for America he sought the assistance of the police. As Denmark has an extradition treaty with the United States the Chief of Police, through the Danish Foreign, Office, requested the arrest of the Jensens at Chicago for kidnapping the child.