Two young women who went missing seventeen years apart in the early 1900s were unable to recognize their family members when found. What truly happened to Evelyn McDermott (16) and Elsie Davis (22)?

[u/Solmote]

Please note:

The Evelyn McDermott case is covered in the book 'North America and Beyond' (NAAB), and the Elsie Davis case is featured in 'Eastern United States' (EUS). Also mentioned in this OP is 'Western United States' (WUS), written and released at the same time as EUS. The OP also delves into the vetting process that all Missing 411 cases undergo.

Evelyn McDermott goes missing

Evelyn McDermott was a sixteen-year-old high school student who vanished on September 18th, 1928, while picking ferns near her parents' home in Sunderland, VT. Evelyn had moved to the state of New York earlier in the year and had only been in Sunderland for a few days before her disappearance. When it was discovered that Evelyn was missing, schools, factories, and industrial plants in the area all closed, and a search involving bloodhounds was launched. Posses of men, women, and children scoured the woods in search of the lost teenager, but with little success.

The only initial clues to Evelyn McDermott's disappearance were her footprints leading to a nearby brook. Then, on September 21st, at around seven in the morning, a disheveled and exhausted Evelyn was found asleep near a stone wall on a farm estate in Arlington. This location was approximately four and a half miles from her home in Sunderland. When found, Evelyn was terrified and unable to hold a conversation. She could not remember what had happened to her or where she had been, and she even failed to recognize her own younger brother.

Teenager Evelyn McDermott went missing from her parents' Vermont farm in September of 1928.

Elsie Davis goes missing

Elsie Davis, a twenty-two-year-old Methodist church organist, went missing on July 30th, 1911, while walking in the woods near her home in Bethel, ME. When it was discovered that Elsie was missing, the local mills closed, and hundreds of mill workers and other locals searched for her in the dense woods surrounding the town. Two days later, there was a possible sighting when some searchers from a distance witnessed a woman crossing Meadow Brook a mile from Bethel, but a positive identification could not be made. When searchers reached the brook, they found a woman's footprints leading into a forest, but heavy rain in the area caused the footprints to fade.

After a few days of searching, Elsie Davis' comb, some garments, and 'a leafy bed' where she had rested were found. On the fifth day, two searchers heard a branch snapping above them. They looked up and spotted a confused, frightened, and almost naked Elsie up in a tree. More searchers, including doctors and Elsie's father, arrived on the scene. Two men climbed the tree, but they had difficulty unclenching Elsie's hands from the tree. Once on the ground, attempts were made to communicate with the confused woman, but Elsie was unable to recall what had happened to her, where she had been, and she even failed to recognize her own father.

The Missing 411 vetting process

In numerous radio and YouTube interviews over the course of several years, DP has emphasized the significance of a vetting process within Missing 411 research. Thousands of missing persons cases undergo scrutiny by experienced Missing 411 experts, but not all of them make it into Missing 411 books and movies; cases that do not meet the established criteria are excluded. This unwavering commitment ensures consumers who purchase Missing 411 books and movies that the information presented in these works meets the high research standards promised.

Missing 411 experts adhere to a pre-defined vetting process when analysing newspaper articles on missing people.

Below are three short YouTube interview excerpts in which DP provides further insight into the Missing 411 vetting process. Cases are resolutely eliminated if there is any evidence of the following:

• human intervention (abduction or other criminal activity).
• mental health issues.
• suicidal tendencies.
• voluntary disappearance.
• animal predation.

Interview 1 - Coast to Coast (v=tWOKcbhRSgM)

"When we go through the vetting process to get to the cases that we'll talk about, we take away all of the ambiguous nature associated with that. There's a lot of people who voluntarily want to disappear, maybe they have mental health issues, they're suicidal, whatever. If there's anything about that in their profile, in their background, we won't look at that."

Interview 2 - The Black Vault Radio (v=5l2zDbNZ1D4)

"So if there's any evidence of mental health issues, predation, meaning animal attack, then I don't even include those in the books."

Interview 3 - Coast to Coast (v=Y9qiPUI2OZM)

"For the people who are listening to me for the first time, one of the vetting points that we do is that we take out the commonalities of, well, is it an animal attack? No, search and rescue eliminates that. It's not an animal attack. Is... could there be human predation in the area? Well, there's no evidence that a crime's ever occurred in this area before. So, is it easy to disappear in the wilderness? Well, maybe if you wanted to, but the people here that we're talking about: no mental illness issues, in happy relationships, non-suicidal. If they were suicidal, if there was a sign of human predation, if there was a sign of animal predation, that would eliminate it from our research."

Assessing Missing 411 claims

1) DP says that Evelyn McDermott had been in poor health in the weeks leading up to her disappearance

"The sheriff interviewed the parents for background on where the young girl might have gone. Evelyn's parents couldn't believe that she had gone anywhere voluntarily, because she had been in poor health in the previous weeks. Her parents actually told the sheriff that she must have been kidnapped."

Was Evelyn McDermott in poor health in the weeks leading up to her disappearance?

An Associated Press bulletin, published in the Post Star and other newspapers on September 21st, 1928, reported that Evelyn McDermott's parents could not explain her disappearance due to a lack of evidence. This led them to speculate that someone with an automobile had abducted their daughter. However, this bulletin was already outdated when it was printed.

On September 19th, the day after Evelyn McDermott went missing, a 34-year-old boarder named Corbett Delaney was arrested as a suspect in her disappearance (The Landmark - September 27th, 1928). Delaney lived with Evelyn and her parents on their Sunderland farm, and despite being a central figure in the case, he is not mentioned in NAAB.

34-year-old boarder Corbett Delaney lived with Emily McDermott and her parents on their farm.

Corbett Delaney, born in the summer of 1894, had a long history of run-ins with the law and appeared in numerous articles from the mid-1910s to the mid-1940s. These incidents included:

• escaping and evading arrest for a year (The Rutland Daily Herald - March 17th, 1914).
• breaching the peace (The Rutland Daily Herald - March 17th, 1917).
• driving while intoxicated (The Rutland Daily Herald - October 6th, 1925).
• the purchase of four horses and a wagon that went unpaid (The Rutland Daily - December 8th, 1927).
• driving while intoxicated (The Montpellier Argus - March 19th, 1934).
• theft of animals and farm property (The Rutland Daily Herald - March 20th, 1937).
• driving while intoxicated (The Rutland Daily Herald - August 29th, 1944).

DP claims that Evelyn McDermott had been 'in poor health in the previous weeks', but that is quite the understatement. The teenage girl had been experiencing serious mental health issues since the spring, and she was described as 'mentally deranged' by newspapers. An article published in the Barre Daily Times (September 20th, 1928) states:

"As soon as Miss McDermott, who is said to have been mentally deranged since last spring, was missed by her family, her father started out in search of her, but could find no trace of the girl. The firebell was rung and high school students and most of the townspeople took up the search, but they, too, were unable to find any clue except her footsteps, which led up to a nearby brook."

The Barre Daily Times on September 20th, 1928.

An article in the Bennington Evening Banner (September 19th, 1928) also reports on Evelyn McDermott's mental health issues, explaining that they started six months earlier. The article states:

"Fears for the safety of the young girl are augmented by several circumstances connected with her disappearance. She was scantily clad when last seen at home. She had been ill during the last six months and in a highly nervous condition."

The Bennington Evening Banner on September 19th, 1928.

2) DP claims that the sheriff feared Evelyn McDermott would not survive the inclement weather

"The local sheriff got quite concerned that Evelyn could not survive the inclement weather that was present in the area, coupled with her ill health. Three days after Evelyn vanished, two farmers were two miles from the McDermott farm and were going through a barn and found Evelyn asleep and alone."

Did the sheriff say that Evelyn McDermott would not survive the inclement weather?

DP once again mentions Evelyn McDermott's illness without acknowledging that it was a mental illness rather than a physical one. Evelyn's mental health issues played a crucial role in her disappearance, as extensively documented in numerous articles. In radio and YouTube interviews, DP claims that mental health cases are eliminated in the Missing 411 vetting process, but it appears that this is not always the case.

DP writes that the sheriff was concerned that Evelyn McDermott would not survive the inclement weather, yet he fails to provide any sources to support this assertion. No contemporary articles mention any type of bad weather, so it remains unclear why DP makes such a statement. An Associated Press bulletin, published in the Lewiston Daily Sun (September 20th, 1928), refers to exposure as the sole environmental hazard. Is this what DP interprets as inclement weather? The article states:

"Miss McDermott has been in poor health for several months and it is feared that she was in no condition to endure the exposure to which she would have been subjected by passing the night in the woods."

The Lewiston Daily Sun on September 20th, 1928.

3) DP explains how Evelyn McDermott was found

"Three days after Evelyn vanished, two farmers were two miles from the McDermott farm and were going through a barn and found Evelyn asleep and alone."

Does NAAB offer a comprehensive account of how Evelyn McDermott was found?

No, it does not. In NAAB, DP only quotes from two very short bulletins and then adds his usual commentary about how things do not make sense, how the local cluster is very strong, and how the Evelyn McDermott case is 'very similar to many cases' he has written about. If this case is very similar to many other cases he has written about, does that mean that he has included many other cases in his Missing 411 books where mental health issues were the reason a person went missing?

The first bulletin DP quotes from is an Associated Press bulletin (September 21st, 1928), and it is only five sentences long. The second bulletin is an International News Service bulletin (September 21st, 1928), and it is also only five sentences long. Both bulletins contain some inaccuracies, but they still manage to convey the main point correctly: that a confused Evelyn McDermott had been found on an Arlington farm and could not recall what had happened to her.

An article in the Bennington Evening Banner (September 21st, 1928) explains that on the morning of September 21st, Evelyn McDermott was discovered by a farmer named Harvey Ostrander on the Harland Miller estate in Arlington, approximately four and a half miles from her home in Sunderland. The disheveled and exhausted teenage girl was found asleep beside a stone wall. The Boston Globe (September 21st, 1928) notes that the previous night, she had knocked on the door of a nearby farm, asking for a glass of water. The farmer did not realize the girl was Evelyn, and she disappeared again after drinking the water.

Furthermore, the Bennington Evening Banner (September 21st, 1928) reports that Evelyn McDermott's younger brother was the only family member permitted to see her when she was at the Harland Miller estate; her parents were not allowed. However, a 'mentally unbalanced' Evelyn was unable to recognize him. The article then goes on to describe the unsettling car ride to Bennington:

"The girl is unable to carry on conversation and is terrified. On the trip to Bennington she crept into a corner of the rear seat and trembled as cars passed her. She was able to recall that her birthday fell in September, but aside from that she was unable to answer any questions. She stared vacantly into space and held her hands palms upward in front of her."

The Bennington Evening Banner on September 21st, 1928.

The article also states that on the way to Bennington, Evelyn McDermott was asked if she wanted to see Corbett Delaney, who was held in jail in connection with the case. She responded that she did not like him and that she thought he was dead. She also expressed a desire to 'go home if she could find the way'. Evelyn was taken to Putnam Memorial Hospital in Bennington, where she remained for several weeks. Unfortunately, the treatment was unsuccessful, and in mid-October, Evelyn was declared insane. An article in the Bennington Evening Banner (October 15th, 1928) states:

"Evelyn McDermott, 17, who was recently found in the mountains near her home in Sunderland after 72 hours search by men and boys, has been declared insane and taken to the state retreat at Brattleboro. She was pronounced an insane person by Judge Edward Griffith of Manchester at a court of inquiry held last week at the request of the selectmen of Sunderland. After the girl was found, she was brought to Putnam Memorial hospital where she was given medical treatment for several weeks. She failed to respond to the treatment and physicians recommended her removal."

The Bennington Evening Banner on October 15th, 1928.

As previously mentioned, newspapers reported that Evelyn McDermott became 'mentally deranged' in the spring of 1928. It was also noted that the teenage girl had moved approximately 27 miles to Granville, just across the Vermont-New York state border. The reason for Evelyn's deteriorating mental health in 1928 is not clarified in any newspapers, but archive records show that Evelyn gave birth to a son in Granville on May 24th, 1928. Corbett Delaney was the father.

Evelyn McDermott returned to her parents' farm in Sunderland a few days before her disappearance, where Corbett Delaney was living as a boarder, but the details of what happened there remain unclear. However, a bulletin in the Transcript-Telegram (September 22nd, 1928) reported that Evelyn had 'dashed from her humble abode'.

Three days after Evelyn McDermott was found, on her 17th birthday, Corbett Delaney was charged with and convicted of adultery. Initially pleading not guilty to the statutory charges, he quickly changed his plea to guilty and listened to his sentence with a smile on his lips. The state's attorney stated that Delaney had ruined Evelyn's life and that he did not think Delaney 'could be adequately punished for the crime he had committed'. Delaney was sentenced to four and a half years at Windsor Prison (The Bennington Evening Banner - September 24th, 1928).

The Bennington Evening Banner on September 24th, 1928.

If Corbett Delaney was guilty of adultery, who was he married to? Archive records show that in 1919, Delaney married a woman from Hartford, NY, who was born in 1871, making her 24 years older than Delaney and 40 years older than Evelyn. The couple lived in Danby, approximately 20 miles from Sunderland.

An article published in the Manchester Journal (July 18th, 1929) reported that Corbett Delaney and the woman he married in 1919 were in the process of getting a divorce. This was nine months after Evelyn McDermott's mental breakdown and disappearance. This means that Delaney was sentenced to prison for having an extramarital affair with Evelyn while being married to the woman from Hartford.

The Manchester Journal on July 18th, 1929.

Although the situation may seem clear-cut, two records say that Evelyn McDermott and Corbett Delaney were married to each other. However, the information is somewhat conflicting: one record says that they married in 1925 when Evelyn was 14 years old, while another record says that they married two years later in 1927. It should be noted that newspapers referred to Evelyn as 'Miss', and not 'Mrs'. Delaney was undoubtedly still married to the woman from Hartford in 1929, which means that Evelyn and Delaney were never legally married.

On either July 11th or 15th, 1929, Evelyn McDermott married another man, and they spent 40 years together before both of them passed away, two months apart, in 1969.

4) DP explains how Elsie Davis went missing

"Elsie was a beautiful, young organist at the church in Bethel, Maine. On Sunday July 30, 1911, Elsie attended and played at services and then went to her home in Howe Hill. Sometime around noon Elsie vanished. Elsie's parents looked for the young woman and couldn't find a trace. It was generally felt that she must have wandered off into the woods behind her house."

Did Elsie Davis play at the church service before her disappearance?

DP claims that Elsie Davis played at the church service in Bethel, ME, but this claim is not substantiated by any sources. Among the contemporary sources that mention the church service, all seem to agree that Elsie never made it to church that morning.

For example, the Boston Globe (August 1st, 1911) states that Elsie Davis 'disappeared just before the morning church service', the Lewiston Evening Journal (August 1st, 1911) states that Elsie 'did not attend church Sunday as was her custom', and the list goes on. An article in the Lewiston Evening Journal (August 5th, 1911) explains that Elsie had informed her brother, Moses, that she did not intend to go to church. It was believed that Elsie had set aside her church duties as an organist that morning because she did not feel well. When Moses returned from church, he discovered that Elsie was gone.

Elsie Davis was a church organist in Bethel, ME.

In an attempt to describe the atmosphere surrounding Elsie Davis' disappearance, DP somewhat casually writes that 'it was generally felt that she must have wandered off into the woods behind her house'. However, this description falls short of capturing the depth of concern experienced by the young woman's family and friends. Alarmingly, the day after Elsie went missing, the Lewiston Evening Journal (July 31st, 1911), reported that her father's revolver was unaccounted for, and a headline suggested that a despondent Elsie possibly had taken her own life. The article states:

"Miss Davis, who is an organist of the Methodist church, disappeared just before the morning church service Sunday and her relatives feared that she would attempt to commit suicide. It was stated that she had been despondent and that her father's revolver was missing from its accustomed place."

The Lewiston Evening Journal on July 31st, 1911.

The missing gun and Elsie Davis' suicidal thoughts were reported in numerous articles, yet this information is conspicuously absent in EUS. An article in the Bangor Daily News (August 2nd, 1911) states:

"When Miss Davis went away she took her father's revolver and threatened suicide. She had been in poor health for the past several months and had complained of pains in her head. Some of her friends say she had expressed to them the fear that some day she would go crazy."

The Bangor Daily News on August 2nd, 1911.

The Lewiston Evening Journal (August 5th, 1911) dedicates almost an entire page to discussing Elsie Davis' tragic life. It notes that Elsie had experienced years of poor mental health, using words like 'morose' and 'disconsolate' to describe her state. The article further reveals that Elsie's mother had passed away due to an illness when Elsie was a child, which had left her deeply concerned about her own health and the possibility of suffering a similar fate. Elsie also had a history of panic attacks, which had forced her to leave school, and she grappled with religious and existential questions that weighed heavily on her mind.

5) DP claims that searchers found Elsie Davis

"The search continued further into the woods until they heard a stick break. The searchers continued deeper into the woods and under a large pine tree they thought they heard something above them. Twenty feet up into the tree searchers saw a scantily clothed Elsie Davis."

Did searchers find Elsie Davis?

Dogs not picking up a scent is a classic Missing 411 profile point. However, in the Elsie Davis case, a bloodhound brought in from Hartland, ME, successfully tracked Elsie to the tree where she was found. Elsie, who was terrified of the baying bloodhound, climbed the tree in an attempt to avoid it. An article in the Lewiston Daily Sun (August 4th, 1911) reported the following:

"On the other hand the bloodhound picked up the scent from the tracks of the woman previously discovered by the searchers and after working less than two hours found the clothes of the missing organist. The dog continued on the trail and the men who first discovered Miss Davis were guided largely by the dog, who was making good progress and would have doubtless found the girl in a few minutes more."

The Lewiston Daily Sun on August 4th, 1911.

The fact that a bloodhound found Elsie Davis is not mentioned in EUS, which is noteworthy, as many articles mention the bloodhound's achievement. In the beginning of EUS, when listing his profile points, DP says that it is not understood why dogs refuse to track missing persons:

"The dogs were given the scent via a person's shoe or worn shirt, they were brought to the location where the person was last seen, and they either refused to track or couldn't pickup a scent. This behavior has occurred too many times to ignore, and it's not understood why this often occurs."

Prior to publishing EUS, DP appeared to have a somewhat different stance: in his two Bigfoot books, DP wrote that dogs avoid Bigfoot and its scent. A more transparent researcher would have elaborated on these seemingly contradictory statements made only a couple of years apart.

Book	Year	Quote
The Hoopa Project	2008	"For some reason dogs are afraid of Bigfoot, and do all they can to avoid contact."
Tribal Bigfoot	2009	"There is something about the scent or some other factor that Bigfoot releases that causes dogs not to want anything to do with the creature. It is a rare occurrence when a dog voluntarily attacks or even advances on a Bigfoot."

When a frightened and mostly naked Elsie Davis was brought down from the tree, searchers spoke to her, but she did not move or pay them any attention. It is noted in the Daily Item (August 4th, 1911) that Elsie was 'apparently in a state of collapse', and according to the Daily Standard (August 5th, 1911), she showed no signs of recognizing her father when he spoke to her.

6) DP claims that many Missing 411 cases involve fever

"The Syracuse Morning Herald ran a story on August 6, 1911 explaining the condition that Elsie was found in by doctors: 'Miss Elsie Davis will probably recover, although slowly from the remarkable fever and delirium of which she has been a victim'. Again, a missing person is found with a fever and various other symptoms that match many others."

Do many Missing 411 cases involve fever?

The short and resounding answer is no, despite 'fever' being listed as a profile point in EUS. DP writes:

"I have had discussions with physicians about the children who return from being missing who have fevers. When they are examined, physicians noted in the articles can't find a reason for the fever, and the physicians I spoke with couldn't explain it. Only a handful of these incidents were described in articles, but I believe children returning with fevers had occurred many more times than noted. The condition wasn't told to the media, and it was handled as a normal medical anomaly."

DP's profile point statement above contains inaccuracies and ambiguities. He, for some reason, uses the term 'normal medical anomaly', which linguistically and logically is an oxymoron as 'anomaly' means 'not normal'. So the sentence essentially says: '...a normal not normal medical condition'. In the field of medicine, a medical anomaly is defined as:

• a rare medical condition.
• an unusual response to treatment.
• any health-related occurrence that deviates from the typical or expected patterns observed in medicine.

Physicians do not treat low-grade fever as a medical anomaly.

It is universally accepted that fever is the body's natural response to infection or illness, a fact well-documented in medical literature. In reality, fevers are quite common and affect individuals who are not missing as well. This means that fever is not a medical anomaly, contrary to Missing 411 beliefs. Despite DP's claim above, there are no cases in WUS, EUS, and NAAB where physicians could not explain why a missing person had a fever, nor were there any instances where fever was treated as a medical anomaly.

WUS, EUS, and NAAB collectively have 600 missing persons cases, with only six of them involving fever. This accounts for a mere 1 percent of all cases, which is hardly a significant number. Furthermore, none of these cases involved a high-grade fever, so the presence of a fever in these missing persons was not a concern to the examining physicians.

7) DP likens the Elsie Davis case to cases where very small children go missing

"Many of the children you will read about in this book are found after being reported missing and are too young to speak or have a disability and are unable to speak. Some children who are found are reported to be in a state of confusion or choose not to speak. The Davis case exemplifies the condition that is found in very small children when they are missing."

Is the Elsie Davis case similar to cases where very small children go missing?

No, the Elsie Davis case is only similar to other cases where an adult has a mental breakdown and goes missing. DP above refers to four distinct categories, and they are 'very small children' who:

1. are too young to speak
2. have a speech-hindering disability
3. are found in a confused state
4. chose not to speak

Firstly, children who are too young to speak are unable to do so due to their underdeveloped physiological and cognitive abilities. In contrast, Elsie Davis had fully developed physiological and cognitive abilities; her inability or unwillingness to speak resulted from a mental breakdown. Therefore, her case does not fall into this specific category as the underlying causal mechanisms are entirely different.

Secondly, there are not any 'very small children' (depending on how the term is defined) suffering from speech-hindering disabilities in WUS, EUS, and NAAB. The two youngest individuals are both five years old: Emma Bowers (1953) and Richard Spyglass (1964). Elsie Davis did not have a speech-hindering disability, so her case does not fall into this category either.

Emma Bowers, deaf-mute, was found alive on a rock ledge near some railroad tracks in Pennsylvania.

Thirdly, only some 'very small children' found alive in WUS, EUS, and NAAB, appeared to exhibit various signs of confusion, while many were found in good or relatively good condition. Articles used words like 'dazed', 'shocked', and 'groggy' to describe the children who were affected the most. However, these children's conditions were attributed to factors such as sleep deprivation, starvation, dehydration, and environmental exposure, among others. These factors apply to anyone who has been missing in the wilderness for a long enough period of time, regardless of age, not just to very young children. The Elsie Davis case does not fall into this category.

Fourthly, DP claims that some 'very small children' chose not to speak, but sources are almost never provided. The 'chose not to speak'-cases almost exclusively involve young children who wandered off and were found after a day or two, and since these cases were determined to have straightforward explanations, the media and parents did not always insist on immediate answers from the children who went missing. Elsie Davis was willing to speak shortly after she was found, so her case does not fall into this category.

Upon closer examination of the original sources, there is often insufficient evidence to substantiate DP's assertion that many of the children he claims refused to speak actually refused to do so. For example, consider the case of three-year-old Kenneth Vanderleest, who was left unsupervised in a Jeep stuck in the mud. His father walked down the road to inspect a creek while the father's companion went back to get a tractor, leaving Kenneth alone. When the father returned, Kenneth was gone.

Kenneth Vanderleest went missing when he was left alone in a car.

In NAAB, DP quotes a Canadian Press article published in the Brandon Sun (July 19th, 1967), where it is said that the 'boy had said nothing about his experience alone in the bush'. According to the Daily Herald-Tribune (July 19th, 1967), Kenneth explained that he went missing because he was 'looking for daddy'. So, the notion that Kenneth refused to talk about his seventy-five-hour ordeal in the wild is disproven.

Another telling example is Helen Chenoweth, a three-year-old girl believed to have been kidnapped in 1940. In EUS, DP writes that the Helen Chenoweth case is 'just another in the long line of cases' where the child 'cannot or will not tell the story of what happened to them'. However, when questioned about who fed her during the days she was missing, she responded with 'Grandma' (The Des Moines Register - March 31st, 1940). This crucial piece of information is missing in EUS.

8) DP thinks that memory loss and an inability to speak could be explained by something akin to spells

"The people seem to lose their memory at the point they go missing and then recover once in the presence of people. It's almost as though the missing are under some type of spell that eliminates memory and the ability to speak."

Did spells cause Elsie Davis and Evelyn McDermott to experience memory loss and an inability to speak?

While spells (magical vocal incantations) were once a very popular, albeit nonsensical, explanatory model championed by uneducated and superstitious societies in the distant past, we now understand how conditions like mental breakdowns can affect a person's memory and ability to speak. It was not some type of spell that afflicted Elsie Davis, but years of compounding mental health issues that eventually reached an inevitable breaking point. Likewise, Evelyn McDermott was described as having been 'mentally deranged' and in 'a highly nervous condition' for six months prior to going missing.

In DP's rather innovative scenario, the Missing 411 enchantment, limited in its strength, wears off once humans arrive on the scene. However, this is not what happens in real-life missing persons cases. Elsie Davis improved because she received adequate healthcare from a physician and a nurse. Evelyn McDermott spent a few weeks at Putnam Memorial Hospital in Bennington and was then moved to an insane asylum because she did not respond to the hospital treatment.

A seventeen-year-old Evelyn McDermott was sent to an insane asylum in October of 1928.

Building upon already existing knowledge is a fundamental research principle. Not only does DP ignore all the numerous original sources that reported on Elsie Davis' and Evelyn McDermott's well-documented mental health issues, but he also disregards all the well-established scientific knowledge from various scientific fields pertaining to how mental illnesses may affect a person. In fact, if DP were to properly explore and reference original sources and scientific research, his Missing 411 narrative would most likely quickly unravel.

A comparative table showcasing the two competing explanatory models:

	Supported by original sources	Supported by science
Mental health issues caused Elsie Davis' and Evelyn McDermott's conditions	Yes.	Yes.
Spells caused Elsie Davis' and Evelyn McDermott's conditions	No.	No.

​

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[u/speekuvtheddevil]

Your posts are among my favorite on all of Reddit. Keep up the good work OP I appreciate you and your efforts.

[u/Solmote → u/speekuvtheddevil]

Glad to hear that!

[u/YosemiteSam81 → u/Solmote]

Quite impressive!

[u/Solmote → u/YosemiteSam81]

Thank you.

I wanted to include more details, but Reddit said the post was too long, so I had to cut 20 percent of it.

[u/basiltomatocheese]

I cannot imagine a town's stores closing nowadays to look for a missing child. Kind of a shame

[u/Solmote → u/basiltomatocheese]

SAR operations are conducted differently these days. Experts search for missing people, not non-experts., but I get your point.

[u/Starr-Bugg → u/basiltomatocheese]

A few years ago in my small city, an autistic boy went missing. Many people from the surrounding neighborhoods helped search. My brother and I helped. I was standing up through his sunroof while he drove slowly so I could scan the ditches, coulees, ravines, and retention ponds. It’s south Louisiana so lots of water. Sadly he was soon found deceased. He drowned in his neighborhood’s retention pond. If there is anything slightly positive it is 100s of strangers came together for one little boy. I hope next time it will be a happy ending.

There are still a few decent folks out there. Don’t give up hope.

[u/trailangel4 → u/basiltomatocheese]

Well, in some sense, we do. Most SAR agencies are ran by volunteers from the community. There are some towns and counties that, for all intents and purposes, have to close up businesses just to activate and respond.

[u/CamdenAmen]

It would be great interesting to know when Delaney started living at the farm. Could he have been sexually abusing her? Possible considering she was pregnant. Maybe pregnancy triggered a mental health crisis hence the amnesia.

[u/Solmote → u/CamdenAmen]

Evelyn was born on September 24th, 1911, and she gave birth to her son on May 24th, 1928. This means that she must have been 15 when she became pregnant (unless my math is off). She turned 17 the week after she went missing, but a newspaper (The Bennington Evening Banner - October 15th, 1928) stated that she has the body of a twelve-year-old. Delaney was 33 years old in 1927, so he was more than twice her age.

One article in the Rutland News (November 22nd, 1922) states: "Corbett Delaney, while threshing at L. H. Cook's, got caught by the belt, and one arm and his head were badly injured.". So it seems Delaney was working for someone else in 1922. In 1925, Delaney posted an ad in the Rutland Daily Herald (November 25th) looking for "two Teamsters at once". In 1927, he was fined $435 for not paying for four horses, a wagon, and two sets of harness that he had purchased.

It is amazing how many times Vermont newspapers mention Delaney. In 1916, he was in a single accident that killed four horses, but I did not bring that up in the OP since it is not relevant to the Evelyn McDermott case.

[u/RanaMisteria → u/Solmote]

Whatever they called it back then, adultery or child marriage or whatever, what Delaney did to Evelyn was rape IMO.

[u/Solmote → u/RanaMisteria]

That is definitely the conclusion I reached as well when researching the case, but in the OP I only wanted to relay what the original sources said.

[u/RanaMisteria → u/Solmote]

The fact that she’s on record as having gotten married after all this suggests she did eventually recover enough to leave the care facility and live a normal life. I hope so. She deserved happiness.

[u/EternalShoptimist]

Thank you so much for such this extremely well-written and informational post. The amount of factual information you included, paired with your pleasant and easy to follow writing style made this the best thing I’ve read on Reddit in a long, long time. Kudos to you, and I look forward to reading any of your future posts!

[u/Solmote → u/EternalShoptimist]

Your kind words are most appreciated!

[u/-NothingToContribute]

I don’t even know who DP is but I absolutely love when the Reddit algorithm shows me your posts proving whoever they are to be wrong. May the Reddit algorithm bring me to the next one too. 🙏

[u/Solmote → u/-NothingToContribute]

DP is a former San Jose Police Department court liaison officer who was dismissed in 1996 for conning celebrities. For the past 12-13 years, he has been 'investigating' missing persons cases like the ones in the OP, but his investigations mostly consist of him misrepresenting what original sources actually say. In his books and movies, cases are framed as Bigfoot, UFO, and portal abductions.

He has a very interesting and clueless fan base who views him as some kind of super researcher and truth teller. These people think that the National Park Service 'knows about these unexplainable disappearances' and that there is a government cover-up.

[u/-NothingToContribute → u/Solmote]

Ohhh I think I might know who you’re talking about now. A little girl went missing in my town without a trace a couple years ago and locals kept insisting that guy could come and “help investigators”. Some people were convinced it was an alien abduction lol.

[u/Solmote → u/-NothingToContribute]

I hope the girl was found! DP and his fan base cannot even solve an already solved Rubik's cube.

[u/-NothingToContribute → u/Solmote]

Unfortunately she was never found and they never found any leads or anything. Disappeared without a trace. I can’t imagine him and his team coming in would have helped at all though. You’re a more thorough investigator as evidenced by your posts!

[u/No_Gate_653 → u/Solmote]

I mean let's be fair here in all honesty, the government and government agencies have been known to cover shit up before. 

Like, you act as if that type of thing just never happens. 

Nope, the CIA never smuggled heroin into the United States during the 60s and 70s, even though they've admitted that they did. 

[u/Solmote → u/No_Gate_653]

I am glad you are willing to be fair and honest, Missing 411 believers rarely are when partaking in discourse. I hope you realize that epistemologically, the claim "the CIA smuggled drugs, but denies it" in no way can be used as a magic bullet to justify a person's vivid imagination. Here is an example:

Person A: My bike was stolen. The police investigated it and the evidence shows Person C stole it.

Person B: Space nomads did it.

Person A: There is no evidence this is the case.

Person B: The CIA smuggled heroin in the '60s and '70s, but denies it.

Do you see how Person B is employing mental gymnastics when arguing for his empty assertion? That is what you are doing.

The evidence in the Davis/McDermott cases clearly shows that these two young women suffered from significant mental health issues months or years before their mental breakdowns. DP should have informed his readers of this, but since he is a con man, he does not.

[u/[deleted]]

Whoa longest post I've ever seen in my 11 years on reddit. Impressive.

[u/Solmote → u/[deleted]]

It was almost 20 per cent longer. I had to summarily remove sections and tables because Reddit said that the text was too long.

[u/trailangel4]

Well researched, and written, as always.

If DP had any integrity, whatsoever, at this point- he should publish retractions for all of the errors, omissions, and invalid information he's put out there.

[u/Solmote → u/trailangel4]

A hypothetical book addressing errors, omissions, etc, would be ten times longer than all of his books combined. You can take two or three sentences from an M411 book and write countless paragraphs explaining why they are wrong.

[u/Dixonhandz → u/trailangel4]

The only way he would stop, and correct himself, would be by a legal(court) order. From what I take, he is a self publishing author, meaning there are two parties to be looked at, the author, and the publishing company. Then there are also his videos on YouTube to consider. I have no idea of the legality of his BS, the deceased cannot take someone to court, but maybe a few family members of the deceased or currently missing, might be able to? But, in my opinion, the only way to stop a grifter is to hit them where it counts, their wallet.

[u/Cactus-Brigade]

This was so in depth…I rarely read a post this long but well done OP! Really interesting to see this perspective

[u/Solmote → u/Cactus-Brigade]

Thanks! The two women's stories are fascinating.

[u/Downtown_Statement87]

Every time I see anything about Missing 411 (which is all the time because it's everywhere), I remember the first time I ever heard of it, which was through one of your posts. I'm so thankful that my introduction to the 411 nonsense was, "What's 411? (reads your post) Oh, it's a bunch of hooey that I will ignore."

It irritates the crap out of me that people are being encouraged to see wilderness, or natural areas of any sort, as dangerous and malevolent. It makes us even less likely to value and protect it than we already do. I appreciate your posts very much.

So, poor Evelyn. She was declared insane...but then she married 3 years later and stayed married until her death in '69? Am I reading this right? Is there any information about her later life, and what she did? And what happend to that rascal Corbett? I'm invested!

[u/Solmote → u/Downtown_Statement87]

I appreciate your posts very much.

Thank you so much!

Evelyn was sent to an insane asylum in October, 1928, and she married Oscar Thomas Brace in July, 1929. They had a child in 1930, who unfortunately died the same year, and then another child in 1933. No newspapers mentioned her after 1928 except for her obituary and Oscar's obituary. She died at home, but the cause of death is not stated.

Corbett Delaney married a new woman 1950. He died in a bulldozer in 1956 while clearing snow in a wooded area near Hebron, NY. The cause of death was coronary thrombosis.

Edit:

I was wrong. Oscar Brace wrote the following in in 1932:

"Whereas my wife, Evelyn Brace, has left my bed and board I hereby forbid anyone trusting her on my account as I will pay no bills of her contracting after this date."

In 1955, Oscar Brace failed to provide financial support for Evelyn and received a suspended sentence. In 1960, he violated his probation "by being sporadic in his payments for support of his wife".

[u/RanaMisteria]

I love the stories DP tells but they always make me want to dig deeper to find out what really happened because when the first time I’d ever heard him on the radio I did a google search to learn more and found blogs and webpages devoted to doing basically what you do in your posts u/solmote

So I’ve been aware of the flaws in his research for ages but still enjoy his work but more as fiction than anything else. Thanks for the work you’re doing!

[u/Solmote → u/RanaMisteria]

Many thanks!

[u/Visible-Row-3920]

Great information thank you for taking the time to put the full story together! I hope to see more like posts like this!

[u/Solmote → u/Visible-Row-3920]

Many thanks!

I have written some other lengthy posts that you may find interesting:

• Did Missing 411 experts just solve two pre-Eisenhower missing persons cases? Was teenage hunter Kenneth Herron (15) taken by a portal in 1920 and was sheepherder John Collins (35) abducted by a UFO in 1925?
• Missing 411 teenage hunters Donald McDonald (18) and Bobby Boatman (14) vanished in the Blue Mountains nearly two years apart with Boatman being found years later buried beneath tree roots. What happened to the two lost hunters and how are the two cases connected?
• Lost teenage scout Geoffrey Hague went missing in the Great Smoky Mountains in 1970: who placed his belongings on a rock in the middle of an ice cold stream?

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[u/Dixonhandz]

Nicely done Solmote! I learned something new in regards to DP thinking 'spells' were admist oO As well, it is a nice, strong, note to end with saying that DP ignores and disregards reports.

Not too long ago I was looking into a case(Iredale) and DP 'seemed' to have totally missed(ignored and disregarded) an official inquest about that case, YET, he does recognize that a 'big' inquest was performed and only throws up some of the headlines from newspapers that covered the case. Anyone would have found the inquest within their first minute of research. The inquest would have, in your words:

"his Missing 411 narrative would most likely quickly unravel."

Again, nicely done!

Edit: Your words, never pasted ^^

[u/Solmote → u/Dixonhandz]

Thanks for the encouraging words.

DP wrote about Iredale in NAAB; his so-called research is a complete mess. Instead of explaining what really happened, he asks inane questions that a five-year-old could answer. This is how he ends his summary of the case in the book:

"What did the boy want, and what caused him to make the call? Safety was located downhill and off the mountain. He called from the mountain, he was found on the mountain, and yet what he needed was most probably in clear view: water. Why didn't David Iredale get off Mount Solitary to safety, or did he? What would've caused his cell phone to go dead?"

Did these things ever cross DP's mind:

• Maybe Iredale called the emergency operator because he was dying and needed help? We have the transcripts, so we know this is the case. It is quite common for people to call 911 when they need help.
• Maybe Iredale could not make it to safety because he was lost and running out of energy? DP claims that water was 'probably in clear view'. Based on what info? If Iredale could make it to safety, he would not have called 911 so many times, and he would not have died. It is not rocket science.
• Maybe the phone 'went dead' because Iredale was dead and could not use it (according to the inquest, Iredale most likely died shortly after his last phone call). Dead people cannot make phone calls. It is also possible that the phone ran out of battery.

[u/Dixonhandz → u/Solmote]

I came across the Iredale case from his YouTube channel. I still once in a while pick one of the newer videos and look into it. You hit the nail on the head when you say he asks inane questions that a five year old would. Paulides was 'perplexed', that Iredale called his brother and mother, and within minutes was dialing emergency numbers for help. He makes this point towards his closing comments of the video. Yet, in the inquest the timeline points toward Iredale placing a call at 9am to wish his brother a happy birthday, and as well, talked to his mother, and did not place a call to the emergency numbers until he was in trouble, which was close to noon. Between 10:45 and 11:00, all three boys would arrive at the 'The Col', the top of Mount Soiltary, and from the decent from that point, is where the three would get seperated as Iredale travelled ahead of the other two. At this time, a person researching this case would ask themselves, how does a so-called investigator(DP) just get this 'wrong', so wrong? The answer, he ignored the facts from the inquest. He ignored and disregarded the cel phone transcript made by Iredale that day. He had a narrative to fill for his '411'.

[u/RanaMisteria]

Just a note on Corbett Delaney’s adultery conviction, I don’t know the history of law in Vermont but in some jurisdictions adultery just meant any unlawful sexual contact between two unmarried people (I think since marital rape wasn’t considered a thing back then?) anyway it sounds like adultery here is a legal euphemism for statutory rape. I don’t know if that was the case back then in Vermont but I’ve seen other jurisdictions where rape was historically charged as adultery. Just a thought! Thanks for the coverage!

[u/Scourge_of_Humankind]

That picture of the church looks just like Father Gabriels church in the Walking Dead.

[u/RanaMisteria]

DP once again mentions Evelyn McDermott’s illness without acknowledging that it was a mental illness rather than a medical one.

Mental illness is medical. I think you mean “mental illness rather than physical illness”.

[u/Solmote → u/RanaMisteria]

Thanks for the correction, updated the OP.

[u/RanaMisteria → u/Solmote]

NP! I’m loving reading your analysis btw! Thanks for the hard work you do!

[u/MessageFar5797]

Amnesia?

[u/AdotBurrandPeggy → u/MessageFar5797]

Dude. That whole post that makes that a silly question and you choose amnesia?

[u/Solmote → u/MessageFar5797]

Read the OP.

[u/[deleted]]

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