Walter CollinsWalter Collins and his impostor
I was reading on the Internet an interesting story about a missing boy whose mother never found him. On March 1928, Christine Collins gave her nine-year-old son Walter money for the cinema in Los Angeles, US. However, he never returned from the show. The disappearance was reported immediately, but, despite the police’s efforts, no trace of him was reported for five months.
Five months later, Christine was reported about a boy appeared in Illinois, claiming to be the missing Walter. She paid for his transportation to Los Angeles. When he arrived, the mother watched that he was not Walter Collins. However, Christine Collins was pressured by the Police Department to take him home and «try the boy». Collins consented to do it.
Weeks later, Christine Collins said that this boy was not her son. She tried to demonstrate it with dental records. Although there were pieces of evidence, the mother was taken to a hospital’s psychiatric ward as a deemed madness. On these days, the boy admitted that he was not the real Walter Collins. Actually, he was a twelve-year-old boy whose familiar life was very unhappy. The mother was released. Then a new lead on the case was formulated: Walter could be one of the victims of Gordon Stewart Northcott, a murderer who was responsible for killings of a lot of children.
However, Steward never admitted to be the murder of Walter Collins, and Walter’s body was never found. Christine Collins spent the rest of her life searching for Walter until her death at the age of 75.
I don’t know what could have happened. However, I think the best solution could be to accept that Walter Collins was a victim of Gordon Stewart.
This article was presented for the course Advanced Grammar 2 of the ICPNA. Book: Focus On Grammar 5, published by Pearson.
Unit: 13th Adjectives Clauses with Prepositions; Adjective Phrases. 14th The passive: Review and Expansion (underlined).
Instructions: Write a composition of five or more paragraphs describing an unsolved mystery. It could involve a crime, someone’s disappearance, or some strange natural phenomenon. Describe what the mystery is and how it might have been caused. Offer some possible solutions to the mystery. Use passive constructions as appropriate.