Three little girls disappeared from their homes in Bay City, Michigan, one afternoon in April 1909. For the next 20 hours, their families and neighbors had no idea where they had gone.
Agnes Phillips, age ten; her 11-year-old sister, Helen; and their friend Guieth Carpenter, also 11, had entered a nearby vacant house to play. Somewhere inside, they stepped into a closet. The door, fitted with a spring lock, swung shut behind them.
They could not get out.
What began as an afternoon adventure became a long, cold night inside a dark closet. The girls had no food, no way to summon help, and no reason to believe anyone knew where to look for them. By the time they were found the following afternoon, they were cold, hungry, and badly frightened.
Fortunately, the girls had not entered the vacant house entirely alone.
A dog had followed them inside. The newspaper did not provide the animal’s name, breed, or even indicate to whom it belonged. It recorded only the detail that mattered most: the dog’s persistent barking eventually drew rescuers to the house and led them to the trapped children.
Despite spending approximately 20 hours confined in the closet, all three girls escaped without serious physical injury.
Dog Saves Little Girls
BAY CITY, Michigan. — Agnes and Helen Phillips, ten and eleven years old, respectively, and Guieth Carpenter, eleven years old, disappeared from their homes here yesterday afternoon, and this afternoon were found in the closet of a nearby vacant house, where they had been for 20 hours.
The girls had gone there to play, and the door, which had a spring lock, had closed upon them.
Luckily, a faithful dog led rescuers to the place.
Although cold, hungry and frightened, the little girls were none the worse physically for the experience. The dog whose barking led to their discovery and followed them into the house.
Source: New York Tribune. New York, N.Y. April 11, 1909.
