Can I quote you on that?

A 4-year-old boy disappeared near Dover, Delaware, on March 4, 1907. His family had just moved to their new home the day before, relocating from Sioux City, Iowa. There was a wide search for the child along the Eastern seaboard and it was assumed Horace Marvin, Jr., had been kidnapped.

Among the stories that appeared in the New York Times about the missing child was this 8-inch piece about reported sitings of the little boy in New York City on March 30, 1907. What caught my attention was the last sentence in the article.

After noting that the police detective was satisfied that the little boy in the apartment was not Horace Marvin, the reporter concluded with this: "The detective said things and returned to headquarters."

There is no happy ending to the story. Little Horace's body was found in a marsh near his home two months after he went missing. A coroner's jury found that he had died from exposure.