Arizona Republican

WANDERING ON THE DESERT
The Trail of Mollie Monroe, the Escaped Lunatic.

All That is Known of an Early and One of the Most Singular Inhabitants of Arizona.

The worn out body of Mollie Monroe, the escaped lunatic, has probably been found by this time on the desert. Sheriff Orme, who had gone out in search of her, returned late on Friday night, having abandoned the hunt when it grew so dark that the Indian trailers could no longer see. He first went to the store of Lon Barbee, the Indian trader, and found that the trader had turned her back toward Phoenix. The trail came directly west until it had reached a point almost directly south of the city. It turned abruptly south then toward the mountains and then night came on.

The unfortunate woman had evidently already begun to feel the agony of thirst for she had gone at least one day without water. The trail was wandering. She had taken off her shoes and then put them on again and places were found where she had lain down and wallowed in the sand, maybe in agony, for even an April Arizona sun produces agony on the desert.

Early yesterday morning the sheriff telephoned the asylum to send out searchers and he dispatched the trailers again. The track would be easy to follow. It was through deep sand and when it ended it was absolutely certain that the body of a woman would be found.

The wandering woman is one of the most unique, perhaps the most unique character in Arizona. She had been an inmate of the asylum sixteen years and years before that she had lived a wild life at Wickenberg. She drank whisky, wore cowboy clothes and rode with the cowboys at round ups. She afterward married but separated from her husband who lived in Phoenix until ten years ago.

She was about forty-five years old and her appearance was as striking as her history. Her hair was snow white but the face beneath it was that of a much younger woman. No one knows where she lived before she dawned upon the mining camp of Wickenberg.