ADELAIDE MYSTERY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18988, 13 April 1936, Page 9

ADELAIDE MYSTERY

SEARCH FOR WOMAN POLICE DIG IN CELLAR. ~ ADELAIDE!, March 31. Digging operations in a celarette and other parts of the property have been performed by the police in their unsuccessful search for Miss Bertha Maude Davey, of St. Peters, who has been missing, for 24 months. Examination of the contents of the house, none of which had been disturbed, indicated that the last inhabitant expected to be absent for a long time. No; food, groceries or wearing apparel were left,- and blankets and sheets had been folded away in a wardrobe. Relatives are alarmed and mystified. Misß Davey, a quiet, cultured woman, told them little about her affairs. They were unaware that she had bought the St. Peters house. The purchase was made only two months before her disappearance.' They were also ignorant of the extent of her fortune, which is now estimated at Her accounts have not been operated on since: her disappearance. The distress caused to has been accentuated by the deaths on the 13th days of successive months of two of the missing women's brothers, who had taken a leading part in inquiries for. her. They died on December 13 and January 33, one after an operation and the other from heart failure. A third brother is critically ill. , A* neighbours estimated the missing woman's age at "from 25 to 35, it was thought at one "stage tliat she might be the Albury victim, whose age was given by experts at 28-37. Police discarded this theory when the age disparity was revealed.