Mysterious disappearance of local girl

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
With Leonard Cash
 
This week local historian Leonard Cash begins a new installment of “History on Main” with the former Smith building located next to the telephone office on Block 9. Because of the lack of history on this building, Cash is taking it from a different angle. 
Peter Smith, the former owner of the building, had a daughter named Connie, who was the granddaughter of former Wyoming Gov. Nels Smith (who served 1939-1943), according to Cash. Sadly, when she was 10 years old, she disappeared and was never heard from again. Cash pulled out his records of reports of this mysterious event. 
On July 24, 1952, the News Letter Journal reported that 10-year-old Connie Smith, daughter of Helen Smith from Sundance and Peter Smith of Newcastle, attended a summer camp called Camp Sloane, a YMCA camp, in Connecticut. She went missing on Tuesday, July 15, and although the police were going through records to solve this “baffling disappearance,” it was to no avail. 
“It was thought that the little girl may have left Camp Sloan for her home in Sundance, but her lengthening disappearance tended to nullify this hope,” the article says. 
Around Aug. 7, 1952, a missing persons bulletin, according to the News Letter Journal, was issued for the 5-foot tall, 85-pound, blue-eyed Connie, and it mentioned that she broke her glasses at camp, so if she tried reading, she would hold the book close to her face. There had been word that she was trying to hitch a ride near Lakeville, Connecticut. It was also noted she might have been trying to reach relatives in Chicago. 
“Police tracked reports that she had been seen with a band of gypsies of Amenia, N.Y.,” the article says, but it proved to be a dead end. 
“She loves animals and imaginary animal pets including a rattlesnake and a white mare named Toni which can twirl a baton,” the article says. 
An article from the Aug. 14, 1952, News Letter Journal titled “Connie Smith’s Disappearance Still Unsolved” said that reports were still coming in but with no success. The Lakeville area had water-filled mine pits that were no longer in use, so it was possible that she could have fallen into one of them and drowned. But police ruled this out because after a thorough search of the place, according to Lt. Osmus Avery, commander of the state police barracks at Canaan, Conn., no body was found. 
There was a new lead that looked promising. The paper reported on Sept. 18, 1952, that a “mysterious” young girl showed up in Fort Worth, Texas, calling herself the “Albino Indian.” Her identity resembled Smith’s, but after looking further into it, authorities determined that the girl was older, 20 pounds heavier and spoke French fluently. It was yet another dead end, and the search continued. 
A new bulletin was issued around Nov. 13, 1952, by the Connecticut State Police. It included charts of her teeth, eyes and eye prescription. Connie’s mother, Helen, promised a $3,000 reward if she was found before Jan. 1, 1953, or $1,000 if the body was found before the deadline. The woods around the camp were searched, but nothing indicated that Connie had been lost in the woods. 
Cash then took a break from the search for Connie to provide a history of her parents. 
An online article in Cash’s records says that Peter Franklin Smith was born on Nov. 28, 1914, and lived on a ranch near Sundance (Cash said he was actually born in South Dakota.). His parents were Nels and Marie Smith. 
Later, the family moved to the Pride of the Prairie Ranch in Weston County (Cash said he never heard the ranch under this title, but that’s what the article called it.). 
Smith owned Ranch A (now a National Historic Site near Beulah, Wyoming) and raised cattle and other wildlife, including a fish hatchery, Cash said. 
“It’s quite a place,” Cash said. 
Smith also co-owned a meat packing plant near town, eventually buying it out, but it closed because business was down.
Smith was the last surviving attendee of the 1940 One Shot Antelope Hunt, which is an event that  continues to this day, Cash said. 
On Oct. 23, 1937, Smith married Helen Jensen in her parent’s home at Greenwich, Connecticut. Together, they had a son named Nelson J. in 1939, and a daughter named Constance (Connie) Christina in 1942. The couple divorced in 1949, and Helen moved back to Greenwich. 
“In 1950, Peter married Oydis Horton, and her two daughters Ellen and Dorothy join(ed) his family,” the
article says. 
“Isn’t that an odd way to put it?” Cash asked. 
Oydis, who was born in Norway, had been previously married to George Butler
and Dr. William Ogden
Horton before her third marriage to Peter. 
Connie disappeared two years later and was never
seen again. 
“(Connie) has never been found or accounted for, despite exhaustive efforts to solve her disappearance,” the article says. 
Peter died in his winter home at Kino Nuevo in Sonora, Mexico. 
Helen Jensen Smith was born in Connecticut on Jan. 14, 1915, the daughter of Carl Jensen (1899 to 1958) and his wife, Esther Linea Broman Jensen (1887 to 1969). Helen had a sister named Ruth Jensen McWilliams, who lived from 1916 to 1969. 
“Evidently, that must be the only sister she has,” Cash said. 
After the couple divorced, Helen moved back to Greenwich, but her daughter stayed with Peter.  
“Because her husband was a very powerful man, her daughter lived with him in Wyoming. In 1952, her daughter was sent to summer Camp Sloane, a YMCA camp in Salisbury, CT,” the article says. 
When the girl had been there for two weeks, Helen and her parents drove there to celebrate her 10th birthday. 
“It was the last time Helen would see her little girl, as she disappeared from the camp and was never found. Foul play was suspected, but over the years, the case went cold,” the article says. 
Helen died from a heart attack at her ranch home in Sundance, according to the article, on Dec. 30, 1961. She is buried in the Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Conn. 
Sadly, Cash said that both families died without ever knowing what really happened to their daughter, whose death is listed as July of 1952. Connie’s brother is still alive. 
Next week, Cash will give a more detailed description of what happened on the fateful morning in Connecticut.