MAN’S DISAPPEARANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22778, 14 January 1936, Page 13

MAN’S DISAPPEARANCE

ON EVE OF MARRIAGE SKELETON FOUND FIFTEEN MONTHS LATER (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, January 2. The mysterious disappearance of John Dalrymple Hutchinson, 30, on the eve of his marriage 15 months ago has been tragically solved by the discovery of his skeleton in dense scrub near Gosford. His Victorian fiancee never gave up hope he would be found alive and constantly revisited the district since his disappearance. tt i ■ There was a wide search for Huchmson, who had carved an orchard out of the bush of Mangrove Mountain for his bride-to-be. Settlers from miles around gathered for the search, and for weeks parties totalling 400 combed the inhospitable country, but the bush, with which the young man had so stout-heartedly wrestled to win for himself “a livelihood, closely guarded its secret. When Hutchinson’s fiancee heard that he was missing, she came to Sydney with her father, and spent anguished days in the district ir which she had hoped to find happiness. S! m refused to believe that her fiancee was dead, and stayed in Sydney alone. From time to time she revisited the district and even when Hutchinson’s relatives at last gave him up for dead she clung to the belief that be would be found alive. News that lie was dead was broken to her and she has now returned to her parents. , , , , Discovery of the skeleton was made by a man and'two girls, picking wild flowers. They stumbled on the remains and informed the police. A weather-beaten pipe lay near the body. That and a set of false teeth were the means of identification. The remains were in a curved posture, suggesting that Hutchinson had fallen, possibly from a six-foot ledge nearby, and received an injury that killed him outright or prevented him from moving. It was only three miles from his orchard, and search parties, which had tramped through bush five feet apart in that locality, must have been within a few feet of finding him.