Noel's Crime Book

Episode 11 : The Story Of Walter Collins

DISCLAIMER : If you're under the age of 13 or if you're sensitive to abduction, assault, murder, and scary stuff in general, especially when it happens to a CHILD, I suggest you don't read this for your own safety. Credit to Wikipedia, FindAGrave.com, and The YouTuber "Horror Stories" for the information. Enjoy.

On this day, 94 years ago, on March 10th 1928, a 9 year old boy named Walter Conrad Collins disappeared while he was playing near his home in Los Angeles California, and he has never been found since...

Walter Collins was born on September 23rd 1918 in Venice, Los Angeles, California to 28 year old Walter Joseph Anson Collins and 31 year old Christine Ina Collins. Walter's father was a robber and frequently spent most of his life in Prison, so they never spent a lot of their lives together, but Walter still had a wonderful life with his Mother, Christine who loved him more than anything. Unfortunately, what Christine had no idea of was that her son would suddenly be taken away from her for the rest of her life in the most unexpected and terrifying way...

On this day, 94 years ago, on March 10th 1928, Walter Collins was expecting to have a nice warm, fun day outside with his mother, Christine Ida Collins, but what would end up happening that day would be a day so heartbreaking that it would change Christine's life forever...

On that day, while he was playing outside, Walter vanished without a trace and he was never seen again...

When Christine found out that her precious child disappeared, she instantly became frightened and alerted the police and everyone she could about her missing son. The police searched all over Los Angeles, but no trace of Walter was ever seen...

At first, the police thought it might have had something to do with the boy's father, Walter Joseph Anson Collins who was locked up in prison at the time for bank robbery. When he was questioned by authorities however, he had no idea what they were talking about, and claimed he never wanted any trouble with his family.

After ruling out the boy's father as a suspect, the police continued looking for the 9 year old boy, but they made no progress until 5 months later when a boy in Illinois claiming to be Walter Collins turned into the police.

The police reported that they had finally found the missing boy, and Christine Collins was super excited and paid anything she needed to for the boy to be flown back home. But even though it seemed like her worries were over and she would finally see her beloved son again, when she met up with the boy, her excitement quickly faded away.

When Christine met up with the boy, she said that even though he resembled Walter, the boy was not her son. The Los Angeles Police Department on the other hand refused to believe that the boy wasn't Walter however and they pressured Christine to take the boy home, suggesting she'd "Try the boy out".

After a few weeks of living with the boy, Christine returned to the police with dental records and other pieces of evidence that proved the boy from Illinois was not her son, At this point, The Captain Of The Los Angeles Police Department, J..J. Jones was annoyed with Christine constantly denying that the boy was hers and heavily criticized her and tried to send her to a mental health facility so she wouldn't "bother" the police anymore.

During Christine's time at The Los Angeles County General Hospital, the boy from Illinois finally confessed that he wasn't Walter Collins, but a 12 year old boy from Iowa named Arthur Jacob Hutchins.

Hutchins was a runaway child who hitchhiked around the country looking for places to work because of his abusive stepmother, Violet Hutchins and he wanted to get as far away from her as possible. After living on the streets for a month, he arrived in DeKalb to see if he could find a better place to stay. When police brought him in, they began to ask him questions about Walter Collins. Originally, Hutchins stated that he did not know about Walter, but he then pretended to be Walter and changed his story when he saw the possibility of getting to California to meet one of his favorite Hollywood actors.