in a welter of excitement , stuart sailed for new york the very next day the talamasca received two letters from him postmarked new york he wrote again when he reached new orleans , on stationery from the st charles hotel , saying that he had contacted stella and indeed had found her extremely receptive , and that he was going to meet her for lunch the next day stuart townsend was never seen or heard from again we do not know where or when or even if his life ended we simply know that sometime in june of 1929 he vanished without a trace .