MORE CLUES?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 78, 3 April 1939, Page 7

MORE CLUES?

WOMAN'S CLOTHING.

r DISCOVERY IN LAGOON.

THE PTJAMA GIRL MYSTERY.

f (From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, March 31

A fortnight ago the "Star's" correspondent told of. a police "shot in the dark" which it wae hoped might link up the pyjama girl murder at Albury in September, 1934, with the suicide of a farmer named Raymond Cyril White, who had eucceeded to property and life assurance worth £8000 after hie wife had been burnt to death in a 'motor accident. The inquiries yielded nothing, tut since then the accidental -discovery of a girl's clothes in the slime of a lagoon near Albury has aroused new hope that thie five-year-old mystery may be solved.

About half a mile from the culvert in which the pyjama girl's body was found there are a stream of lagoons. Astonishing as it may seem, these lagoons were never searched for possible clues to the murder. Last week-end, owing to heavy rain, one of them threatened to flood, the road and the Albury fire brigade started pumping out ■water. As the water receded the firemen found some clothing in the mud and slime of the lagoon bed. The police ■were informed and pumping operations continued until the lagoon had been! pumped dry t 1 Wading knee deep into the black mud, detectives with forks began to turn over| the lagoon bed in search of further clues, and ultimately found eight articles of clothing. At first they declined to make public the nature of their find, but on Wednesday they released full details to the Press, with a special request that the full details should be published in the .hope that someone might recognise the clothing as having been worn by the pyjama girl.

Terribly Battered. When her body was found in the culvert it was. clothed only in partly burned Kabe crepe canary coloured pyjamas. Naturally, not many of the girl's friends would have seen these. What was needed from the police point of view was the discovery of a' frock, blouse* or euch like, which many people might have seen her wearing. Her body had been brutally treated, so that none of the thousands of people who looked at her battered face could say whom she was. Her left eye had been destroyed by eight or more blows rained on her forehead with, it is believed, either the back of a tomahawk or a tyre lever. Thie battering obliterated her original facial expression and caused swelling of the cheeks which wae at first mistaken for plumpness. In the hunt for her murderer inquiries became almost worldwide, and in Australia thousands of women who had been reported as missing were traced. The body is still in a formalin bath at Sydney University. The following is a description of the articles found in the lagoon:— 1. A Fuji silk cross-over or doublebreaeted, short-sleeved ladies' blouse, elastic at waist, two white buttons on each peak, turned-back collar, termi-l nating in wide revers, press stud under each button to fasten the garment. The colour is a blue ground with fawn or gold stripes predominating, and white, red and black pencil stripes. The blouse) appears to have been factory made, but' some renovations were home-made. It may have been a full-length frock reduced and altered. A Sydney fashion expert, whom the detectives consulted, told them that it was of a type that went out of fashion more than three years ago, which strengthens the possibility of its having been worn by the murdered girl. Possibility Strengthened. 2. A blouse of material which might be either crepe de chine or Kabe crepe. It is intact, though heavily stained with mud and shrunken. It seemed to have been canary coloured. If it was canary coloured Kabe crepe this would increase the possibility of the clothing being the pyjama girl's, as her pyjamas were of I the same material and colour. Later, I however, it was concluded that the ■ blouse had been white or beige. The I blouse was a manufactured article and ' had long sleeves, cuffs finished with two

press studs, convertible collar to be worn either open or with necktie, and elastic at waist.

3. An all-silk necktie, blue with white spote.

4. A blue and grey necktie, with unusual stiching at the back.

5. A pair of women's felt slippers, size 4, red, with variegated silk pom-pom, a cosy suede sole and cushion heel. The slippers are of a common type and show little evidence of wear.

. (i. A pair of women's house sandals, size 4, square cut-out on vamp (or front) of shoe, pump sole, one-bar button strap. These sandals also are not an expensive type.

7. A j>air of women's rubber Wellington knee boots, size 4. They have the word Australia and three stars stamped on the heel. They have not been worn much, and are of black rubber, fleecy lined.

■ 8. Two shoe trees with steel centre and wooden heel and toe. They are of a very common and cheap type.

Three pairs of stockings were also seen in the lagoon, but had not been found. The police think that someone may have removed them at night between the time of their discovery and the pumping out of the lagoon. The detectives found all these articles in 2ft of black mud —inhabited by crabs and turtles —when the bed of the lagoon wae revealed. The obvious difficulty to be explained is the survival of these articles without rotting in the mud of the lagoon for four and a half years, but the police have been told by experts that this is not an impossibility. Many factors would determine how fast or slowly the articles would rot, such as, for instance, perhaps, an unusual absence in the water of the lagoon of disintegrating chemicals.

If the articles are definitely associated with the murdered girl it would appear that the clothing was dumped after the attempt to burn her body in the culvert. Opposite the lagoon is a stock route and the lights of Albury can be seen at night for the first ' time by any motorist driving towards the town from the west.

It has been suggested that the murderer when he suddenly saw the lights of the town decided that he would have no better opportunity before he reached it of disposing of the girl's clothing than the lagoons offered. A second lagoon was pumped dry, but nothing was f*»und in it.