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100 Year Old Mystery - by Eldon Pitts

3/26/2013
100-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY
Panelists offer evidence, theories
Panelists (from left) Lisa Martin, Colleen Steffen and Donnie Hamilton field questions about the 100-year-old disappearance of 9-year-old Catherine Winters during a program Sunday at the New Castle-Henry County Public Library. (Eldon Pitts / C-T photo)
Panelists (from left) Lisa Martin, Colleen Steffen and Donnie Hamilton field questions about the 100-year-old disappearance of 9-year-old Catherine Winters during a program Sunday at the New Castle-Henry County Public Library. (Eldon Pitts / C-T photo)
By ELDON PITTS
For The Courier-Times

After 100 years, the disappearance of 9-year-old Catherine Winters from the streets of New Castle continues to fascinate the public.

That was evident Sunday when spectators filled the auditorium at the New Castle-Henry County Public Library to capacity hoping to learn more about what is perhaps the most baffling mystery in Henry County's history.

The Henry County Historical Society sponsored the event, marking the centennial anniversary, with presentations from a panel of three researchers.

Journalist and journalism instructor Colleen Steffen extensively researched the case for more than 5 years in preparation for a book she has written and for which her agent is seeking a publisher.

Journalist Lisa Martin presented some details of 31 years of research by her mother, Charlene Perry, author of a series of Haunted Henry County Books, who also was writing a book about the case before she suffered from failing health.

Donnie Hamilton, New Castle attorney, teacher and historian, has written magazine articles and given presentations of the case.

There were several theories about Catherine's disappearance - that she was kidnapped, either by a band of Gypsies traveling through the city or by a stranger; that she was abducted by relatives hoping to somehow collect an inheritance from her deceased mother; that she drowned and was washed away in flooding that started the night she vanished; or that her father, dentist W.A. Winters, stepmother, Byrd Ritter Winters and W.R Cooper, a boarder at their home were involved.

After a 14-month nationwide search for the missing girl, the parents and Cooper were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit a felony. The charging affidavit alleged the trio conspired to murder Catherine by "striking, beating and wounding" her and trying to burn her body.

Although a body was never found, authorities did find a red sweater with a burn hole, a hair ribbon and a man's undershirt with year-old human blood in a concrete block in the basement of the Winters home. Dirt and concrete had been placed on top of the items.

The day the trio were set to stand trial, the prosecutor dismissed the charges saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

Steffen said she believed Catherine was abducted by a stranger. She cited mass train and interurban transit that had become available. "All of a sudden, it's possible for a stranger to come to town and not be noticed because there are lots of strangers in town now.

"In my research, I found three instances in six weeks of little girls being approached on the streets by a stranger," Steffen said. One was a week before and one was four weeks after Catherine disappeared.

Steffen said she also found a newspaper account of two small boys who claimed to have seen a man throw a blanket over Catherine's head and drag her into a wagon on March 20, 1913, the day she disappeared.

But the boys didn't tell anyone until a week later, Steffen said. Police didn't take them seriously, she said, "and they were completely ignored by authorities."

Steffen said she had a problem with the items that were found in the basement because there was a front porch trap door entrance to the basement. "We don't know if that was secured," she said.

Accounts of where the items were found in the basement are vague, Steffen said. "The detective who found it was kind of a 'shady' character," she said. Also in the basement were "a collection of policemen, a detective and newspaper reporters, which would never happen today."

Martin cited her mother's decades of research, traveling to at least 11 states tracking down anyone who knew Catherine, were related to her or knew the story.

Martin quoted from her mother's notes: "This research indicates that someone witnessed the shipment of a box from the Big Four Railroad station," where Cooper was a telegraph operator.

"This witness left a written record of this occurrence," Martin quoted her mother.

The written record still exists somewhere, Martin said, "and I'm not the only one in New Castle who knows this.

"Mom interviewed personally more than 250 folks," Martin said, and her mother recorded those interviews.

Martin said she found the tape recordings and brought one to play Sunday.

In the 1988 interview, Martin said Mildred Bales Popejoy, now deceased, who lived across the street from the Winterses, related what Catherine's younger brother, Frankie, told her about the last time he saw his sister before she disappeared.

"Frank said .... we was at the table," Popejoy said. "He said Catherine said something and Byrd slapped her and she fell off of the chair. And he said they made me ... go in the front room and they closed them swag doors.

"And (Frank) said that is the last time I ever saw Catherine," Popejoy said.

"I think it's especially telling," Martin said. "Like Colleen said, there were many young people at the time that weren't listened to. And Frankie was one of them.

"I think it was an accident that happened inside the house," Martin said. "I don't think anybody meant to do anything to that girl ... but I think that's what happened."

Hamilton said he agreed with Steffen, however, and believes Catherine was abducted by a stranger.

"I don't think the Gypsies did it. I think the Gypsies were a scapegoat," Hamilton said. "I'm kind of a big believer in the molester theory.

"I can't swear to it. But something happened to Catherine Winters," Hamilton said. "She disappeared and to this day we don't know what happened to her."