In August 1973, a mother in New Jersey sent her two daughters, Laurie and Allison, to the beach at Ocean City with something to do. She was always looking for ways to get them out of the house, and that day the assignment was to write a message, put it in a bottle, and throw it in the ocean.

Laurie was nine. Allison was sixteen. Speaking to CBC’s As It Happens more than five decades later, Allison recalled that Laurie came up with the story, and it was not a simple one.

“This bottle was set adrift August 20th, 1973 on Second Street Beach, Ocean City, as my captors were transporting me to an island offshore in the Atlantic,” the note read. “Please notify my family that a band of ruthless........

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