Cariboo Mystery Still Resonates

NOTICE!

TO ADAH HALDEN AND ARTHUR HALDEN: 

Take notice that you have been sued in the Country Court, holden at Quesnel, by David Arthur Clark, and that a copy of the summons has been filed for you in the Quesnel Registry of the said Court. You are required to dispute the said action by filing a dispute note in the said Registry within twenty days of the first appearance of this advertisement. 

EDGAR C. LUNN,

Registrar.

First appearance of advertisement is on the 8th day of January, 1921. 

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Such was the legal notice posted in the Quesnel Cariboo Observer on Jan. 8, 1921. There’s nothing really out of the ordinary about this legal advertisement of a century ago. 

But there is something very, very unique about this particular advertisement in the 1921 Quesnel newspaper. 

Although it wasn’t widely known, Adah and Arthur Halden, and their teenage son, had gone missing; had been missing, in fact, for almost six months. No wonder then that David Clark, their hired hand, who’d granted them a large loan, wanted to track them down or recover the money he claimed they owed him.

The police, it appeared, had come to suspect the Haldens of having absconded with Clark’s hard-earned money. Indeed, their suspicions had been aroused. But B.C. Provincial Police Officer Greenwood believed that there was more—much more—than met the eye in their disappearance. 

There was, indeed, as you’ll read in next week’s Chronicles.

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PHOTO: Downtown Quesnel in the 1920s. The missing Halden family lived on the outskirts. —www.pinterest.com