ALBURY MURDER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22259, 6 November 1935, Page 18

ALBURY MURDER

PYJAMA GIRL" CASE OOSTLY INVESTIGATION HUNT STILL GOES ON MOST BAFFLING MYSTERY [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY. Oct. 30 Although the investigation has cost New .South-Walos about £IO,OOO, the . Criminal Investigation Branch in Sydney is relentlessly following all clues likely to assist in the identification of the "Pyjama Girl," whoso charred body was found in a culvert near Albury on September 1, 1934, and who is still unidentified. The detectives beliove that once they know her namo, they will clear up the crime in a matter of days. 41 The money has been well spent," stated high police official. " If it cost ten times that much to apprehend the murderer, tho amount would bo expended on a very worthwhile object. It is a crime which must ho clonrcd up, and we intend to keep going until tho mystery is solved." A dozen detectives have been employed at various times in the sifting of clues. Practically all the clues have been followed to their end, and oh each occasion the police have found themselves just whore they started. But thev still have information not disclosed. Thero are some aspects of the case which officials, even now, will not discuss. Search Tor 14 Months Fourteen months have elapsed since tho body of the slim girl in yellow pyjamas wad found. The huge cost of the inquiries includes, wages of special men who have done nothing else but search for the assailant since the date of the murder, and the printing of circulars .and photographs, which have been sent, overseas in thousands. Every police station and every policeman in New South Wa'.es has been supplied with half-a-dozen separate photographs, including' close-ups, of the murdered girl, whose peculiarly-shaped ears, in particular, have been photographically reproduced. Excepting when some other urgent case has required his attention, Detec-tive-Sergeant Mcßae, chief of Sydney murder investigators, has been permanently employed on tho "pyjama mystery, and another detectivo, with a thorough knowledge of business methods, has been engaged for 12 months solely on tho correspondence soction of tho inquiry. Any Information Welcomed Even now the detectives frequently receive letters from persons who think they, can assist. They have not so far received through correspondence any direct information but they nevertheless welcome letters from any part of the world* for they feel that it is in this way that eventually the vital clue will be received. Stamps and travelling expenses, mainly in the three eastern States oi Australia, have accounted tor much of the expenditure. . , The b6dy of the murdered girl still lies in a bath of formalin in a room in the medical school at the Sydney University. Occasionally the room is opened to admit somebody taken there by the police in the hope of establishing identity, for, though the expectation is fading, the police have by no means given up hope. Mysteries almost as difficult' have been solved in the past.