Missing person notice for Dr. Lorenzo Norton, East Baldwin, 1920
Maine Historical Society
Suspect: Dr. Lorenzo Norton
Accusation: Missing Person
Location: East Baldwin, Maine
Date: 1920-1929
Victim: Dr. Lorenzo Norton
On June 5, 1920, Dr. Lorenzo Norton (1857-1932) informed his wife Anna and his daughter that he would be away overnight on business. An acquaintance saw him at Union Station in Portland, Maine preparing to board a train for Augusta, but nothing indicated he ever arrived at his destination. As time passed, Norton’s family and friends considered a variety of theories about his disappearance, from suicide to cross-country trips to a mental illness. Despite extensive media coverage, the case went cold.
Nine years later, Anna Norton received a telegram announcing her husband was a patient at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York. Anna and her daughter left for New York, hoping to find him and get answers. The person was indeed Lorenzo Norton. His only explanation was a whisper to Anna: “bad business deal.” This didn’t make sense to Anna, as she successfully settled his accounts after his initial disappearance.
While missing, Norton worked as a caretaker and chauffeur on a West Orange, New Jersey, family estate. He continued to use the name Lorenzo Norton, but never mentioned he was once a medical doctor. Able to diagnose his own illness as prostate cancer when admitted to the hospital, staff became suspicious that he might have medical training. Lorenzo eventually asked one of his doctors to write to Anna and reveal his location. Once released from the hospital, Norton and his family returned to Maine.
After his initial discovery in November 1929, Dr. Norton rarely appeared in the newspapers. A few society columns recorded visits to friends and family, but no further information about his prior disappearance. Dr. Lorenzo Norton died from prostate cancer a little more than two years later in 1932.
Lorenzo Norton never publicly provided an explanation for his disappearance.