For more than twenty years, the disappearance of Matilda Moss remained one of Benson, Vermont’s darkest mysteries.
She had vanished only days after a violent quarrel between her husband and another man at a country dance. Her husband claimed she had taken her own life by jumping into the river, but no body was ever found, and suspicion faded when evidence failed to appear.
Then, in 1909, a father and son hunting near Root’s Pond made a grim discovery at the mouth of a cave. Inside were human bones, and beside them lay a locket bearing Matilda’s name and the date 1887.
The old mystery had finally returned from the darkness, and the answer was more horrifying than anyone had imagined.
Her Skeleton Found in Cave
BENSON, Vermont. — Having been a mystery for more than twenty years, the strange disappearance of Mrs. Matilda Moss of Benson, was solved by the finding of her skeleton near the mouth of a cave. The strange disappearance of the woman is remembered clearly by her former townsfolk, who say she and her husband, John Moss, lived happily for fifteen years, until a man named Issac Terrill came between them.
Mr. and Mrs. Moss were at a country dance when they met Terrill. The intruder’s attentions to Mrs. Moss angered her husband and there was a fight that resulted in the dance ending abruptly. Two days after the fight, Mrs. Moss disappeared. Her husband said she committed suicide by jumping into the river, but her body was not found.
The authorities kept Moss under surveillance for a time but no evidence against him was obtained, and he left the state.
George P. Norton and his son, Frank, were out hunting when they discovered a cave near Root’s Pond, They struck a match and peered into the cave. Close to the opening they saw a human skeleton, and dragged it out.
By the heap of bones was a locket, in which was a small picture of Moss. On one side of the locket was inscribed “Matilda Moss, 1887.”
It is believed here that Mrs. Moss was taken to the cave, bound, and left in the darkness to starve to death.
Source: The Columbian. Bloomsburg, Pa. May 20, 1909.
