Intensive Search, But No Trace Of Missing Girl

Press, Volume C, Issue 29625, 22 September 1961, Page 10

Intensive Search, But No Trace Of Missing Girl

(N£. Press Association> WELLINGTON, September 21. A 70-strong police party in a 12-hour search of the Melrose hills area today found no trace of the missing Lower Hutt girl, Miss Wendy Catherine Mayes, aged 16, or of the man they believe can help them. The police called off their search at 5 o’clock tonight till tomorrow morning.

Since soon after daylight more than 60 policemen and dogs searched the scrub-clad hills between Newtown and Martin Luckie parks and around the Wellington zoo. They slashed their way through more than 50 acres of scrub before the search was halted. , Criminal Investigation Branch men in one of the most intense inquiries in Wellington for many years are working around the clock to find some trace of either person. Detective Chief Inspector W. S. Craigie, on transfer from Auckland to Wellington, flew to the capital today and went straight to the search area. The police fear for the safetly of the girl, who has not been seen by her parents since Monday morning when she left her home in White Line east, Lower Hutt, for work. She is believed to have answered a newspaper advertisement of September 13 which required a parttime model for calendar photographic work. Miss Mayes, with another girl, met a man in a city coffee shop the next day and arranged an appointment for an interview at 5 p.m. last ; Monday She was seen leaving the coffee shop with the man and driving awav with him about 5.15 p.m. She has not been seen since. Man Seen in Area The man the police are looking for is one of a number they have already interviewed. He was seen going into the scrub early this morning.

Immediately more police were called to the area, and five police dogs from all over the country, which happened to be at Trentham Police

School on a course, and their handlers, were enlisted. A base camp was set up in the pavilion at Martin Luckie Park, under Inspector W." A. T. McGuire, Senior Detective A. W. Baker and Sergeant E. Russell. At times the police were helped by zoo officials and a few residents.

The men and the dogs were sent into the hills behind the zoo, while police patrols were set up around the various accesses. The men were equipped with slashers, spades, walkietalkie radios and binoculars. They were told to look both for the man' and the missing girl or anything at all suspicious. Various items of clothing were found, including a bracelet, but none seemed to have any connexion with this inquiry.

At times, Russell terrace and Houghton Bay road to the top of Mt. Albert were

full of sightseers’ cars. After school the crowd was augmented by many boys and girls. Inquiries At Houses A party of policemen made house-to-house inquiries in Edinburgh terrace, off Russell terrace;. The main' search was carried out in fine sunny weather, but a strong cold wind blew into the area. The men first covered a set area quickly, then combed the ground more thoroughly in small sections, till midway through the afternoon when Mr Craigie arrived. He held a conference with the senior officers and soon after the system of searching changed. , More than 80 policemen lined Russell terrace at the foot of the hills, not more than an arm's length from each other, and, directed by sergeants with megaphones, advanced straight up 300 to 400 feet slashing their way through dense undergrowth. They --were under instructions to keep the line straight and to walk through, not round, everything. Inevitably some policemen got caught in the thick scrub and had to hack their way out to keep up with the others.

When, nearly an hour later, the searchers reached the clearing at the top, the whole party moved over toward an even more thickly-cov-ered gully and slashed their way downhill, arriving at the bottom scratched and exhausted shortly before 5 p.m. Some had been on the scene since before 5 a.m. The men were taken back to town in Army trucks and the inquiries once again centred on C. 1.8. headquarters.

Tomorrow, the searchers, gathered from all police stations in the Wellington district, can expect little rest as they will cover every foot of ground in the rugged Mt. Victoria and Melrose areas.