Part two of the Connie Smith Mystery

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent
With Leonard Cash
Historian Leonard Cash is finishing his miniseries on the disappearance of Connie Smith in 1952 with a more detailed description of the event. Gathering his information from the online article “Vanished: What became of Connie Smith?” by John Tuohy (“Unsolved Crimes,” August 29, 2012) and a booklet written by Michael C. Dooling titled “Clueless in New England,” Cash
paints a picture of what took place on that fateful morning at Camp Sloane. 
The camp was established in 1928 by Lake Wononpakook near Westchester County, Connecticut. It was a “typical summer camp” filled with fun activities such as swimming, horseback riding, crafts, nature, athletics, hiking, cookouts, campfires, singing,
talent shows and even movie nights. On Sundays, the campers attended church at the outdoor chapel. 
“Others” was the motto, and the goal was to teach the campers that others were more important than self. It was Connie’s first time at the camp, which she soon fell in love with. 
Connie grew up in a wealthy home on Ranch A in Crook County. She loved horses and animals and seemed a lot older than she actually was.
“She had comically long arms and flat feet. And she was nearsighted, so nearsighted that even when she wore glasses she had to hold (the) book close to her blue eyes to be able to see words. She had developed early and as a result looked several years older than her age,” Tuohy wrote. “Connie was widely travelled, well-spoken and could converse on a variety of subjects other kids her age couldn’t.” 
Her mother and grandmother came to visit her on her 10th birthday on July 11, and she unsuccessfully pleaded to stay at camp longer than what was originally intended. Connie was also looking forward to the camp square dance evening.
After her mother left, “she seemed homesick,” as reported by one of the counselors, and shortly before her disappearance, she had been involved in a little “horseplay.” The night before she vanished, she was accidentally kicked in the face, suffering a bloody nose and having her glasses broken. The following morning on July 16, she received another bloody nose right before breakfast. When it was time to eat, she told her tentmates that she was going to return her ice pack to the nurse (from an unrelated bruised hip injury) and wasn’t heading to breakfast. 
However, instead of heading toward the nurse’s office, she walked toward the stone pillars at the entrance of the camp and right on to Indian Mountain Road. 
She was found to be missing around 8 that morning, and the counselors conducted their own search hours before calling police, according to the booklet. Connie was wearing a red windbreaker, navy shorts with plaid cuffs, tan leather shoes and a black pocketbook, which might have contained pictures of friends.
“It is possible that Camp Director Ernest Roberts wanted to avoid the negative publicity that would occur when word spread that one of his campers was missing. And, given his experiences with the state police and the health department years before, he was probably hesitant to be in the eye of another investigation,” the booklet says. 
According to the Tuohy article, a young boy who attended Roberts’ camp contracted septicemia and died. The camp doctor wasn’t registered to practice medicine, something Roberts
was aware of and covered up. Both Roberts and the doctor were arrested. 
The police interrogated people who might have come into contact with Connie in hopes of finding a lead, but it led to nowhere. 
Someone saw Connie picking flowers, and many others along the road noticed her walking but didn’t think anything of it. When questioned, not much information could be given. 
“She was so tall I thought it was a counselor that’s why I did not pay much attention to her,” said August Epp,
camp caretaker. 
Alice Walsh saw her crying and Mrs. William Walsh gave her directions to Lakeville. She said if she had known what was happening, she could’ve stopped Connie.
Reports also say she tried hitchhiking with a certain Mr. and Mrs. John Brun. 
Connie was last seen on Millerton and Belgo Road at the Route 44-Belgo Road intersection. The police searched everywhere and thought of many different scenarios, but nothing could be proved.  
“Perhaps she’d been struck and killed by a car and the driver hid the body. That had happened before. But a check of several miles of roadway showed no trace of
blood or an accident,” the article says. “Perhaps, a lunatic had picked her up by chance sometime after 8:45 and probably killed her.” 
It was also surmised that maybe one of her parents were involved with the abduction, but the booklet says that Trooper Chapman believed that Peter Smith was sincere through and through. Helen was likewise devastated by the loss. Connie could have been kidnapped for ransom because her family was wealthy, but a ransom note never showed up. 
“They say time heals everything, but not this. Each day is a little harder to face. We all know we might lose our children. But not to know what happened to her isn’t human. Please do all you can,” Helen said in the booklet. 
Another idea was that Connie became lost in the woods, but neither parent thought this was plausible because their daughter was a great outdoors person. She could have been eaten by wild animals or drowned in a lake or swamp. After testing the theories and aware of her swimming skills, authorities dismissed them. 
Several people confessed to killing her, but they were all found to be hoaxes. The police thought of every possibility of what might have happened to the little girl, but nothing was ever found. 
A psychic horse by the name of Lady Wonder, which had supposedly solved a missing child’s case before, was even brought in. According to the booklet, the owner of Lady Wonder charged a dollar for three questions, but the horse was a disappointment and didn’t solve anything. 
Perhaps she was molested by a counselor, and the
police reportedly had Epp under “scrutiny.”
“The Police had a long list of suspects that included the camp cook, deliverymen, August Epp the caretaker, two farm hands who had been out late the night before Connie disappeared,” the article says. 
No one knows what happened to the 10-year-old camper because she was never seen again.
But another puzzling, unanswered question remains: Why did she leave camp? 
“The next question was motive, what was Connie’s motive in leaving the camp? Why did she leave without telling anyone and why so early? Was she escaping or at least protesting the rough treatment from her tent-mates? Had she been assaulted by one of the camp employees and was headed into town to phone the police?” Tuohy asks. 
But those questions were never answered, and to this day, it remains a mystery. This concludes Cash’s information on the disappearance of Connie Smith for this week.