MISSING WOMAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 127, 25 November 1938, Page 11

MISSING WOMAN

INTEMSIVE SEARCH

SYSTEMATIC AND THOROUGH

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

BLENHEIM, This Day.

There is no indication at Claverly, the partially-abandoned Public Works camp on the Main Trunk railway, south of Kaikoura, of the search for Mrs. Harriet Jane Patience, who has been missing since early in October, being abandoned. Twenty police are still engaged in the search for the. woman, who was last seen alive on October 4, and it is obvious that the authorities believe she is dead. .

According to observations at the scene it seems more than likely that if the missing woman is not soon found the strength of the police party at Claverly will be increased. From the methodical system adopted there is no doubt that if the body is within the area of search it will be found, but, of course, there are a number of other possibilities to be considered in connection with the woman's disappearance. For more than a month a police party from Christchurch has been combing a wide extent of country, turning over spoil and excavating fillings from huge rock cuttings built for the railway. So far the only bodies uncovered are sheep carcasses.

A patrol of the sea coast from the mouth of the Conway River to Kaikoura, a distance of approximately 30 miles, is being carried out daily. The patrol is being worked in three sections, and the advice of the Marine Department on questions of tides and currents has been enlisted. The nature of the coast, however, presents unusual difficulties for patrol work, for a great deal of it is rocky and not easily accessible. Judging from the painstaking and persistent nature of the operations already carried out, and what it is proposed to do, it is apparent that the police are optimistic that their endeavours will be rewarded. .