POLICE SEARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 97, 24 April 1940, Page 18

POLICE SEARCH.

YOUNG SOCIETY GIRL.

STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE. FATHER OFFERS REWARD. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY. April IS. The strange disappearance of a pretty and popular society girl, 19-year-old Lucy Brown Craig, is a reminder tliat it is possible in any big city for any person, even in a good position in life, to disappear into the blue. Miss Craig is the daughter of Dr. F. Brown Craig, of Macquarie Street, and is employed as secretary by another Macf|uarie Street practitioner, Dr. Bruce W bite, whose I rooms are in the big B.M.A. building. At o p.m. last Friday, Mi>s Craig called goodbye. to a girl in a neighbourim; suit.and left, presumably for home, but she ne\er got there, and at the time of writing is still missing. She had arranged to go with friends that night to the Gilbert and Sullivan show at the Theatre Royal, and her parents thought it strange When she did not arrive home before theatre time. Next day. when they discovered that she had not spent the night with her friends, as they thought she might have done, although she did not usually go anywhere without letting them know, they called in the police.. Not Victim of Accident. The police first checked up with the hospitals to make -sure that she had not been in a traffic accident. Then a man told them that he had seen her board a tram, at the corner of King and Elizabeth Streets, with a young man of whom he was able to give the police a good description. He said he had no doubt that it was Miss Craig, as he knew her well. He had intended to escort her home until lie saw her with the other man. He said he was surprised when the man bought two one-section tickets, knowing that .Miss Craig had to go further to get home. He noticed, when they left the tram, that the man assisted her off it. Acting on this information, detectives visited the cafe around King s Cross, where the girl and her escort had got off, and showed the girl's photograph to proprietors and waitresses in the hope that one of tliein would remember having seen the pair, but none of them did. The detectives were working 011 the assumption that the young man was an acquaintance of the girl, who did not seem like the type that would pick up with a strange man in the street, and that he would probably take her somewhere for a cup of tea. Miss Craig's father refused to entertain the suggestion that she might have eloped. He said she was not a flighty girl, and had always been so frank with him about everything that lie did not think she would have had any secret love affair. Her general character as described to the police tits in with this picture. Took No Clothes. She is a graduate of the Kirribilli Memorial College of Domestic Arts and is described as a methodical girl with many interests. It seems unlikely that she had had thoughts of eloping, for she had only £2 with her and did not take one article out of her wardrobe. It ' seems reasonable to assume also that, even if she did elope, she would by this time have sent some message to her parents to let them know that she is safe, knowing well how worried they must be by her disappearance. On the other hand, it seems to be even less likely that she has been forcibly detained, and a fact that cannot be ignored is that no one knew of her apparent acquaintanceship with the man who was last seen with her on the tram. Her father has offered a reward of i-oO for information leading to her discovery. Schoolboy Missing. A 16-year-old G.P.S. schoolboy has also disappeared. Tile boy, Peter Mansfield Shelley, of Rose Bay, is a pupil of his school's second four and was to have rowed at the G.P.S.- regatta next Saturday. It has now hten disclosed that he has been missing since Sunday, April 7. He was marked present at e'lapel roll call, but a check up after his disap[>earance showed that his seat had not been occupied. He had only four or five shillings when he left school. His father said he was an adventurous type and had wanted to join the Navy, but his qualifications had not been up to the required standard. He said the boy would easily pass for 19.