MELBOURNE MYSTERY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 6, 8 January 1925, Page 7

MELBOURNE MYSTERY

FATE OF C. J. DE GARIS

SEARCH FOR BODY FAILS.

(UNITW PMBB ASSOCUTUW.-COPIWOHT.) (Received Bth January, noon.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The search for De .Garis's body is still futile.

Just before his disappearance he wrote about seventy letters to friends and others all indicating his intention to commit suicide. The chairman of the Melbourne Subdivisions Company says that if Be Garis.had not lost his nerve he would have cleaned up the company w™» a clear profit of £150,000 to £200,000, That profit could 'still be made. ■ ■ De Garis's life was heavily insured.

Mystery surrounds the fate of C. J. De bans, whose name has long been prominent in connection with the unfortunate Kendenup Settlement scheme in Western Australia, as well as with a number of other large financial ventures. Latterly he ■has been prominently associated with the Melbourne Subdivisions Company, a heavily-financed building ■scheme. On Monday De Garis's motoroar was found abandoned on the beach near Mentone with some of his clothes, bubsequently pathetic letters addressed to his wife were discovered at his home, stating that owing to financial complications and worries he intended to drown himself. Other letters were found including one to the reconstruction committee of the Subdivisions Company declaring a similar intention, and expressing sorrow at the losses and distress caused by the failure of,his ventures This letter says that he had decided to end the terrific burden which had affected his mentality, and thereby he had become a menace to his best friends owing to the warping of his financial sense and his incapacity to concentrate on his work.

A persistent search so far has failed to discover any trace of De Garis's body. ,