THE ALBURY MURDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22398, 20 October 1934, Page 22

THE ALBURY MURDER

WAS CRIME PERFECT? j UNKNOWN VICTIM (From Cue Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 12. Four weeks have passed since a girl was murdered at Albury, on the border of New South Wales and Victoria, and the riddle of fhe victim’s identity is. as great as ever it was. This has led to a suggestion in many quarters that the crime was indeed a perfect one, but the police refuse to subscribe to that idea. Although their intensive investigations have so far led them nowhere, the police still express confidence that success will be theirs in the long run, though they are compelled to admit that each day’s delay makes the task of finding the murderer more difficult. Since September 1 detectives and police in every State and in New Zealand have been seeking the name of the girl whose face, except for one wound over the left eye, is still intact. Measures unheard of previously in Australia have been taken to learn the name of the girl. For the first time it was decided to preserve the body, and to allow many people to see it. This week the body was brought to Sydney, and it is now being examined by specialists at the Sydney University in the hope that they will at least be able to decide the nationality of the victim. For the first time, too, teeth were extracted from the body and dental charts and moulds were made of the mouth. Scores of dentists in three States studied the photographs of the dental mould and compared the dental chart with their own records. The result has been nil. . „ Apart from one girl who is said to have assumed the named of Beryl Cashmere, the police have traced 18 girls whose descriptions were said to tally with those of the dead girl. Four persons who saw the body were certain that it was that of an Albury girl. When the police called on the girl’s home, the girl herself opened the door. She had a striking likeness to the murdered girl. On learning the mission of the police party she collapsed into the arms of-the police sergeant, in four weeks more than 650 missing girls have been traced to various parts of Australia. Nearly 1000 people have viewed the body, and the post mortem photograph has been shown’ to 6000 people in the Albury district. The same photograph has been circulated all over Australia. Detectives and police have visited scores of hotels and laundries and boarding houses in an endeavour to trace the towel which had been bound round the dead girl’s head. They have interviewed many wheat and potato merchants to determine the brand of bag that was used to envelop the body. They have also done their utmost to trace the origin of the canary coloured pyjamas which the dead girl was wearing. Every unclaimed letter lying at the. Post Office at Albury, and in the post offices in the surrounding district, has been examined. In every direction the detectives havo drawn a blank. The search will continue for many weeks yet.