MYSTERY EXPLAINED

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 50, 22 November 1928, Page 9

MYSTERY EXPLAINED

BODIES OF YOUTH AND CHILD FOUND Melbourne, November 21. Four months ago Robert Virtue, of Ballarat, reported to the police that his daughter Harriet, aged four, had gone for a walk with William Hiddle, aged eighteen, and failed to return. The police were unable to’ trace the missing youth and child. The mystery of the disappearance was explained to-day when the bodies of Hiddle and the child were found concealed in a chimney in a house in Ballarat. The police are baffled concerning the affair. (Rec. November 21, 9.15 p.m.) Melbourne, November 21. Sordid details are associated with the discovery of the bodies of Hiddle and Harriet Virtue. The little girl’s -mother was in hospital at the time of the child’s disappearance on July 18, and the father purposely kept the disappearance from the mother and the police for four days. The bodies were discovered in an attic between the ceiling and the chimney in Hiddle’s own home in Peel Street, Ballarat. The unusual smell caused an investigation, and the bodies were found-fifteen feet apart between the rafters. Both were dressed, with, the exception of shoes. There was a supply of blankets , and two candles, a large butcher’s knife, a bottle bearing the label poison, also a condensed milk tin beside the little girl. The bodies were much decomposed. They have been identified as those of Hiddle and the little girt