DENTAL CLUE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1944, Page 5

DENTAL CLUE

ALBURY MYSTERY Further Developments In "Pyjama Girl" Case N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. noon. MELBOURNE, this day. Antonio Agostini (41), described as an Italian waiter, appeared in Court yesterday morning charged with the murder of his wife, Linda Agostini, the Albury "pyjama girl." He was remanded till March 15. In applying for a remand the police disclosed that at the request of accused's counsel, Agostini had made a statement to the New South Wales Police Commissioner.

The proceedings lasted only a few minutes in a crowded Court, after which Agostini was taken to Pentridge without having spoken a word in Court.

It is revealed to-day that Mrs. Agostini was born as Linda Platt, at Littlehampton, Sussex, England. She left London in July, 1926, and arrived in Melbourne in August. She then went on to New Zealand and returned to Sydney in 1927. She went to England in 1929 and returned to Sydney in 1930 and married Agostini there on April 21 of that year. She came with him to Melbourne in 1933 and disappeared in 1934.

Agostini was born at Venice, Italy, in 1902. He came to Australia in the liner Regina d'ltaha in 192/ and obtained a job at Romanos restaurant, Sydney, where he remained until he left for Melbourne in 1933. Early in the war he was detained as an enemy alien but was later released and was working at Romanos when he was detained in the "pyjama girl" case on Saturday.

Fillings in Dead Girl's Teeth

Specialists and a dentist had examined dental fillings in the dead g ; rl's teeth. The pclice will say that two porcelain fillings, not disclosed by earlier X-ray photographs, were found by the specialists, and identified by a dentist as those he had made in the teeth of Linaa Platt.

Identification resulted from an entirely new investigation ordered by the "New South Wales Police Commissioner, following a Court action last year when a Sydney woman, Mrs. J. Rutledge, claimed that the victim was her daughter, Philomena Morgan. This claim was supported by the expert evidence of Dr. T. A. PalmerBenbow, of Sydney, but the Court refused to reopen the "pyjama inquest on the ground that no new material evidence had been produced. After last year's case, three detectives were ordered to concentrate on the mystery. It was following a fresh examination of the pyjama girl's" teeth that a wide police inquiry was made to ascertain the movements of Linda Platt.

More Than 200 Theories

More than 200 different theories about the case have been investigated by the police during the past ten years since the body was found at Albury. The cost of the investigations is estimated at £00,000. Police officers travelled more than 20,000 miles in their efforts to solve the mystery. In the first year alone, more than 10 000 reports of missing girls and young women from all parts of the world were investigated. These led to the tracing of 720 girls in various parts of the world. In 1938 the New South Waies State offered a reward of £1500 for a solution of the case. The offer was withdrawn in 1942 A 'documentary-film, ."The Pyjama Girl Case," was , made-with-the cooperation of the New South Wales police, and shown throughout the world a few years afio. The film producer received a warning not to finish the film. It was composed of letters cut from a newspaper and pasted on a sheet of paper It read: "The pyjama girl is dead. If you value your life do not finish the Mother's Request It was stated yesterday that Linda Platt's mother read the "pyjama eirl" story in a London newspaper eight years ago and told the Victorian police that the description ntS mother now Mrs. Edith Flemington, of Littlehampton, Sussex, asked the police to investigate the matter but the information she sent was not sufficient for the police to take action. At that time they were investigating hundreds of cases of missing girls.