2-year-old boy disappears and reappears with a strange mark on his shoulder

Location: near Arhus, Denmark

Date: 1878 Time: evening

A 2-year-old boy disappeared while home alone with his 8-year-old sister near this locality. They boy had fallen asleep on a chair in the living room, and the sister had just for a short while left the house to pick some berries nearby. When she came back, he was gone without a trace. She remembered to have closed the door and her brother shouldn’t have been able to get out on his own, and she hadn’t seen anyone in the vicinity while she was outside.

When the mother returned home later that day, the daughter was crying and very upset, telling her what had happened. Shortly thereafter, the father also came home, and upon learning what had taken place he went from door to door at their neighbors, to find out if anyone knew anything. But no one had seen either the child or noticed any strangers lurking around. In the meantime, the mother searched everywhere she could possibly think of, also without results.

The search continued the next day, Sunday, and a missing person’s report was filed. When the mother returned home the following Tuesday, she found the door unlocked, and in the living-room was her son, alone and in perfect health. The mother was of course relieved and happy and her husband likewise when he later arrived home. At first, they were both content to learn that their son was alive and home safe again. But the following day the mother began to worry, on the boy’s right shoulder she had discovered a strange mark, like “a wheel”, seemingly tattooed onto the skin. The mother, who believed that a witch or similar had taken the boy and marked him, now became terrified that it would bring along all kinds of evil. In the meantime, no one had been able to establish who had kidnapped the boy and brought him back again, or why.

HC addendum

Source: Thomas Brisson Jorgensen, [email protected] Folkets Avis, 11th August 1878 Type: G?