BABY IN RIVER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21102, 12 August 1930, Page 7

BABY IN RIVER.

GIRL OF TWELVE IN DEATH RIDDLE.

LETTERS TO HERSELF ABOUT LOST child;

A strong psychological problem is presented by the discovery in the river that flows through Luekemvalde, a small town to the south of Potsdam, of the body of a baby boy of about two, who had been missing since April 5. The police suspect that a murder has been committed by a little girl named Waldtraut Senf, who is barely 12. The mother of the dead child, an unmarried woman of 22, has been repeatedly examined by the police, but nothing could be gathered from her replies. Waldtraut. a most intelligent girl, playwith the other village children and always takes the lead. The dead child Egon was put in charge of Waldtraut’s mother, but it was Waldtraut who looked after the baby. “ADOPTED" BY WIDOW. One day she called on the baby’s mother saying that she had a friend in_ Berlin, the widow of a lawyer, who was willing to adopt Egon, and that she would arrive in Luekemvalde on April 5. The baby's mother allowed Waldtraut to take the baby to the station. Instead of going there, however, Waldtraut took the child to the river, and there Egon either fell into the water or was drowned by Waldtraut. The girl returned homo and announced that the Berlin widow was now on the way back to Berlin with Egon. Shortly afterwards Waldtraut received a letter, ostensibly from the woman in Berlin, but with the Luekemvalde postmark. This letter, which the girl had written to herself, contained the news that Egon was well and that he was wearing a little sailor suit A second similar letter, addressed to the girl, arrived after the baby’s body had been found in the river, and was intercepted by the police. Waldtraut is perfectly self-possessed, and always has an answer ready. Experts cannot decide whether or not she has woven a tissue of lies to cover the fn> that she has carried out the wish, often expressed by the older women of her acquaintance, that the baby might be got rid of.