Crime: The Girl in the Box

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Indefatigable Robert Mackle tried once again to pass the money to the kidnapers and, on Thursday night, finally succeeded. For twelve hours after the ransom was delivered, the family and the FBI waited in vain for the release of Barbara Jane. Then the FBI issued warrants for the arrest of Gary Steven Krist, 23, an escaped convict from California who had been using the alias of George D. Deacon, and Ruth Eisemann Schier, 26, a green-eyed blonde who was said to be a graduate of the National University of Mexico. A petite 5 ft. 3 in., Miss Schier may have been mistaken for a boy by Mrs. Mackle and for a young man by the Miami police.

Barbara Jane was found at week's end when the kidnapers telephoned the FBI and said that she could be located in a wooded area some 20 miles north east of Atlanta. The kidnapers had hidden her well. Barbara Jans had been placed in a coffinlike box which had then been buried under 18 inches of earth. Her tomb had been equipped with food, water, two flexible vent tubes which protruded above ground, a fan, and a small light which failed some hours before she was found. She had spent an estimated 80 hours underground. Still wearing the red-and-white nightgown that she had on when she was abducted, Barbara Jane was nevertheless reported in good condition. She was immediately flown to her distraught parents in Coral Gables, while the FBI pressed a nationwide hunt for Krist and Schier,

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