This is Part 2 of a Vanishing. Click here to go back and read Part 1!
The city offered a $250 reward to anyone who could solve the mystery of Gertrude’s disappearance, which expired on March 1, 1903. Even when the reward was doubled, no one came forward with any information.
Two clairvoyants turned up: one Edward Chase and a Frenchman named DeBeau. The paper seemed enamored with DeBeau, describing his long hair and full black beard. He had a good record of finding stray animals, stolen money, and other things. As a credential, he submitted a plan of the Strassburger home, a rough map of the place where Gertrude disappeared, and a description of Mr. and Mrs. Strassburger, all of which he seemed to have no way of knowing. DeBeau theorized Gertrude had skated up toward the dam and back to the bridge, removed her skates, and walked up Broadway. He believed she had been abducted and was being forcibly detained in a building nearby. But with no new information, DeBeau accepted defeat and went home. Chase’s theory was that Gertrude was in the river near South Crookston Bridge. He too left when no proof was found.
Two days before the reward expired, the Red Lake Falls Gazette wrote, “Every effort has been made by the police and the sorrowing family and their friends to find some clue to the missing girl but up to date not the remotest clue or traces of her has been found. A large number of false alarms and supposed reliable clues have been probed to the bottom with very discouraging results. A great many are of the opinion that the missing girl is in the river under the ice but there is no reason for believing such is the case unless the futility of the search, which has been conducted so vigorously the past three months, leaves room for no other conclusion. Others think the girl is alive and well, etc., but there really is nothing from which to draw any kind of a conclusion. It is a most mysterious case.”
Had she been under the ice, Gertrude’s body would have surfaced when it melted but no trace was found. Sightings of Gertrude were plentiful but when they were run down, it was always a case of mistaken identity. Her parents had no idea what became of her but after many months, they accepted that she must be dead.
The strangest part of Gertrude Strassburger’s story, perhaps, is the consensus that people landed on. Her disappearance was called a “fading away” or a “dematerialization.” In other words, she had moved to the spirit world without dying. Even a well-known judge publicly subscribed to this theory.
Lurking spirits were accused of carrying her off. More especially, the spirit of Will, her lost fiancé. Gertrude’s friends said she told them she learned to live with Will’s absence knowing it was “only a question of time” until she joined him. The remark the girl had made to her friend just before disappearing now seemed significant.
Initially, I thought this would be another case that had nothing behind it, similar to the 1905 hoax regarding Maysie Tichnor and Henry Ziegland, and the tale of the Patient Bullet. But I found plenty of evidence that Gertrude Strassburger existed and disappeared, just as the papers said.
1900 U.S. Census
What are your thoughts on this strange story? What do you think happened to Gertrude?
old spirituals 
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I have a theory. First, I believe the those involved in the ice skating race were gone for more than a few minutes. The Red Lake River is nothing but “bends” where it flows through Crookston, MN. The question is which bend did the group of skaters race to and back?The River is 193 miles long and on a map appears to be the scribbling of a 2 year old with a crayon.
Secondly, if the Red Lake River was frozen, why assume Gertrude “walked” away? She had ice skates, perhaps she just stepped on to the frozen river and skated away . . . . in the opposite direction of those racing.
For me the mystery is where she may have gone, not how she disappeared.
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this is a pretty good theory. better than what I was thinking. if this is how it happened my guess is she left with a deliberate plan to end her life to be with her lost love. a doctor might say she was having auditory hallucinations
if it wasn’t a suicide then the death couldn’t be anything in our normal understanding. the idea of dematerialization is beyond me but there are cases of spontaneous combustion aren’t there?
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Spontaneous combustion! That’s another big theory. I don’t know if that can happen but there are cases where people have disappeared without a trace–Amelia Earhardt is one.
Nicola’s idea of her skating away is possible too but I run into the problem again of why couldn’t anyone find her? She didn’t have any reason to run away…
I’m almost inclined to believe in a supernatural disappearance, though my rational brain doesn’t like the idea. One of the essential elements of miracles is belief. Gertrude believed she would be reunited with her lost love. Maybe their reunion transcended reality. I’m uneasy with this idea. It’s not quite a conclusion.
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chat got says no spontaneous combustion after all
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Well it was a creative thought anyway!
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Very interesting and good theory! If we assume for a moment that’s what happened, the questions become: Where did she go? Why did she leave in that way?
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She may have traveled anywhere. In 1902, it was very easy to disappear in America. All one needed for identification is a name, which could be changed multiple times and without anyone be aware of a person’s true identity.
If she did relocate to another town, city or State, how did she sustain her existence? Figure that out and you’ll figure out where she went. She may have even gone West to California by working in any number of menial jobs. But then I think, she may have been one of the thousands unidentified bodies discovered by someone. I hope that is not the case.
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True! One of the most amazing features of the early twentieth century is how easily you could disappear if you wanted to start over.
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This is quite a mystery! I’m more inclined to think there was a weak area in the ice and she fell through, drowned and was swept miles down river. There were always old uncovered wells and she could have fallen into one that was covered by snow. As far as reuniting with her love, she could have meant spiritually since many people at that time held Christian beliefs. My grandmother told me about her aunt, a child of about ten years old disappearing and the family never knew what happened to her. I wish I had asked her name. I was young at the time.
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That’s another good possibility!
The turn of the century has so many enduring mysteries, thanks to the absence of surveillance. There’s no footage to review, no social media timelines, cell phone tower data, nor even a paper trail where we could piece together her movements. We couldn’t duplicate this mystery if we tried.
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