Mysterious Disappearance at Kensington Park

- Many and morbid are the speculations being made about the disappearance of young master Kendall Pierpont Russell, lost last Sunday in the precincts of Kensington Park. Although the gentlemen of the Court are still making inquiries, they are no closer now than they were on the evening of Saturnalia last to finding the rogues who abducted the four-year-old son of M.P. Richard Millhouse Russell, one of Tarant's greatest Captains of Industry and Trade.

According to Chief Inspector Geoffrey Bates, who has personally taken charge of the case, there have as yet been no demands of ransom delivered to the anxiously waiting Russell family. Due to the nervous collapse of his wife, Lady Wilhelmina Russell, on Tuesday, the esteemed Minister has been obliged to retreat to his lodgings at Richmond to await any developments in the case. In the meantime, all of Tarant is searching for the gnomish lad, not only for the sizable reward which has been offered for his safe return, but from genuine concern that a mite so small should be done such a terrible turn by denizens of our own fair city. A child of the gnomish race, especially one so young, is wholly vulnerable and defenseless. Alone in the depths of the great city, even a common gutter rat might do him serious injury...and how much more so the human and orcish vermin which prowl our streets?

These sad speculations aside, it may do some good to repeat here the particulars of the case. Last Sunday evening, casual strollers at Kensington Park stumbled upon the remains of young Russell's personal guardian, the half-ogre Grendel. The loyal beast was found dead in the center of a torn and battered glade, once peaceful, which had lately become the scene of tremendous violence. In this small, grassy clearing, where the Russell boy had been wont to play on his week-ends, a Herculean struggle had taken place; a very great deal of blood was splashed about the grass and rocks, and the ground was churned with battle, large hods of earth and grass having been ripped up and scattered about.

No sign of the Russell child could be found, save for the sailor's hat which the boy had been wearing when he left the house that morning. Although search parties were dispatched throughout the Park for the remainder of the evening, the night, and far into the following day, there was no further trace of the lad. The only clue left for investigators was a grisly one: still clutched in the hands of the dead ogre was a quite human-looking arm, which apparently Grendel had wrenched from its owner's socket when he was deprived of his beloved charge.

How any attacker managed to carry even himself away from the scene, after such a grievous and usually fatal injury - much less hold the struggling form of a small & terrified boy - remains a great mystery. Forensic examination of the arm reveals no new intelligence; given the condition of this severed limb, chief medical examiner Frederick Allen has been unable to glean any useful information. The owner appears to have been a roughly human person, almost certainly male. It was an arm from the right side of the body, well-developed and strong. Admixture of elven or orcish blood is impossible to ascertain, although the hairs upon the forearm suggest a person with dark hair and a lighter complexion.

Although the spot was somewhat remote from the common footpaths, it does seem strange to us that a man with one arm torn from the socket could have left the precincts of Kensington Park in daylight, without some witness remarking upon his injury! And this is to say nothing of the blood which must have covered his clothes. Persons possessing knowledge which might be useful to the police in their inquiries are urged to come forward. Any information which leads to the arrest of guilty parties, or the safe return of young Russell to his family, will be generously rewarded.

All in all, this incident argues a need for better policing of the city, especially of the Kensington Park area. If the city's most august citizens cannot defend their own, whose children are safe? More officers must be hired, and their patrols made more regular to remedy this dire situation.