ALBURY MURDER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21921, 3 October 1934, Page 8

ALBURY MURDER

/ FATE OF YOUNG GIRL IDENTITY STILL UNKNOWN AID OF SCIENCE INVOKED [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, Sept. 28 Although some extraordinary methods have been adopted by the New South/Wales police, they have failed completely to establish the identity of the girl who was murdered near Albury nearly a month «'!go. Pictures of the girl based on post-mortem photographs have been shown at the picture theatres throughout the State, but so far no one has come forward with any information that has been of the slightest u4e. For more than a week the police worked on the supposition that the girl was a recern; arrival from New Zealand, but they have made little progress along these lines. Every "clue''' so far has been unreliable, and the detectives are at a loss to understand the reason for the silence. In a special appeal the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Childs, said: "We are sure that some person or persons could confidentially give to us the most necessary clues to the identity of the victim. It is the duty of that person or those persons to recognise their oblito the public, and also to an outraged law." The police have brought various branches of science to t.heir aid and have now determined upon a scientific examination of portion of the girl's hair. This is the first occasion in the history of New South Wales crime that such action has been/taken. Doctors were requested to examine the body at Albury, to establish, if possible, the nationality of the girl. Two of the medical experts expressed the opinion that the girl had Chinese blood, although her hair was fair. The consensus of opinion, however, was that the girl was Australian or English. The detectives engaged at the scene of the crime subscribe to this belief. A Board of Health official stated that the texture and shape of the hair might give an important lead to the establishment of the race to which the murdered girl belonged. The hair of various races, l:e said,, differed in circumference. The hair of a negro, for instance, was frizzy, chiefly for the reason that each hair was thicker in some parts than in others. That gave the hair a pronounced curl. In the case of a Chinese, however, each strand was symmetrical. It was comparatively easy to distinguish between the hair of the northern European type and that of the southern Mediterranean, even in cases of fair-haired people. Detectives have been active in Western Australia, as a result of requests from the Sydney police concerning attempts at identification. More than 20 reports have been received from people who believed that published photographs of the dead girl resembled girls they knew were missing. In all except two cases the girls were traced, and detectives are investigating the two outstanding cases.