Two Missing Persons Cases in Merano and Surroundings

Austria.

Merano, 4 September. Already twice this year have we witnessed the disappearance of people from our midst, plunging their families into the greatest sorrow; and those who vanished were neither children nor persons of dubious character, but young men from respectable families who enjoyed the finest reputation. The first of these unfortunates was Mr. Johann Putz, a son of the deceased former district judge of Glurns. From his earliest youth he was highly regarded for his exceptional moral purity and loved quietness and seclusion. Later destined for commerce, he was sent to one of the foremost mercantile houses in Trieste to learn the trade. Yet, removed from his quiet study and placed into the noisy bustle of the commercial world, he found so little pleasure in Trieste, which indeed has nothing gratifying to offer a religious soul, and the contrast between his former and then-present life began to affect his mind so adversely, that it was deemed advisable to send him back home to his family. Having arrived here, under the medical care of Dr. Matzegger he gave every hope of recovering completely from his morbid state of mind. But around the beginning of March, after he had spent about a year at home, the young gentleman suddenly vanished. His family, believing that he had merely gone on an excursion to the country to visit relatives, at first suspected nothing amiss from his absence. In the end, however, they were bitterly disabused of this belief. Naturally, they did not fail to send out people to discover the whereabouts of the missing man, and these individuals — by no means the most reliable subjects — claimed to have caught his scent here and there, a pretense that subsequently proved completely unfounded. After repeatedly renewed inquiries, these were at last acknowledged as fruitless and thus entirely abandoned. But after nearly all hope of finding the lost man nearby had been given up, the sad tidings reached his family that the unfortunate young man had been found in a hay barn behind Schönna towards Thall, partly starved and partly frozen to death.

A similar grievous case occurred again only recently. Mr. Florian Seyrer, a local master glazier and tinsmith, unmarried, an entirely respectable man in good economic circumstances, left his house on 14 August to spend a few days on summer retreat in Latzins in Pfelders. As work was pressing, he promised his sister, who manages his household and looks after the shop, that he would certainly return on the 18th. For greater pleasantness, instead of the less refreshing route through Passeier, he chose the more arduous and in a certain respect more dangerous, yet far more rewarding route across the Tiroler-Alpe via the Spronser-Joch. The 18th of August came, but not with it good master Florian. When he did not return home on the following day nor on the day after that, his family, especially his sister, understandably became very anxious, and this fear and apprehension mounted even further when someone arriving directly from Pfelders confirmed that on the 15th, the high feast of Our Lady, he had seen the master neither before, nor during, nor after divine service. Upon these ill-boding tidings, his brother, Mr. Ignaz Seyrer, a bookbinder, set out immediately with a good friend and hurried, making inquiries everywhere, searching and urging others to do likewise, along the very path Florian had intended to take, as far as Latzins; but alas, in vain. They learned indeed that Master Florian had asked for milk at Longvall, the highest farm in the village of Tirol, and higher up still at an alpine hut; also, that both herdsmen and two other men who had just crossed over from Latzins had seen him even further up, strolling leisurely along the Langsee; that the herdsmen, noticing that he was heading too far to the left and might thus miss the safe pass to Lazins and even expose his life to danger, had signaled to him from afar that he should turn more to the right, which signals they did not doubt the master had seen and understood, without however paying heed to them. This disregard of their well-meant signs the herdsmen then interpreted to mean that he, whom they did not know, was not concerned with crossing over to Latzins, but merely with viewing the alpine pastures and the various lakes located there. Having returned from Latzins, Mr. Ignaz Seyrer undertook another expedition into that alpine area with another good friend and eight or ten men, with dogs also being used for the search. But all was in vain. Furthermore, all the herdsmen of those alps and all individuals familiar with those mountainous regions from Tirol, Vellau, etc., were called upon, and rewards were promised to all searchers, especially to whoever should find the victim. From the high Tschegot and the Muth down to Passeier, all rock crevices, caves, and chasms have so far been scoured. But alas, to this day not a single trace of the lost man could be found.