GIRL’S- SUICIDE

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19765, 21 December 1935, Page 13

GIRL’S- SUICIDE

STOWAWAY ON MONTEREY IN LOVE WITH STEWARD. “I am Just another mad Melbourne girl In l-ove with someone I can’t have," read an extraot of a note left by Phyllis Elbon, 19, a stowaway, who disappeared from teh liner Monterey between Melbourne and Sydney. The Deputy Dlreotor of Navigation (Captain O. D. Williams), at- an inquiry at the Customs House found that the girl lost her life by Jumping overboard, and that every effort had been made to reoover her. Captain Ellis -Raynor Johanson, the master, said that, when the liner was off Gabo Island it was reported by a sailor that a woman had Jumped overboard on the port side after-boat deck; The alarm signal- was sounded, the vessel's -oourse altered, end men were sent aloft as look-outs. The sea was rough and the emergency lifeboat wa3 manned. The ship circled round the locality ■for about an hour without result. Miss Elbon had also given her name -on hoard as'Phyllis Evans. The presence -of the stowaway, said the master, had been reported to him by the purser about 10.45 p.m. on the previous night. He had instructed the purser to accommodate the girl in a first-class stateroom, where he •ordered -her to remain. She was a tall, slender girl, blonde, of a good -type, and respectably dressed. She was -of a type superior to that which one looked for in o. stowaway. She had left two written statements in her -cabin. “Sweet Memory.” One statement read: — “Dear Sir: I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble, but it has got to be. Last night when I gave myself up, I gave you a wrong name. I haven’t parents in Sydney at all, so please don’t feel too mad. Why I did It was beoause I love Roy better than life itself, but it was not his fault, he didn’t even know I loved him until I tried to commit suicide Tuesday night. “He had no idea that I was on the boat, so please don’t think he had, I haven’t seen him, so please don’t blame him. lam Just another mad Melbourne girl in love with someone who I oan’t have. So therefore, I prefer to die with a sweet memory. —Signed "Miss Elbon." The other statement was:—

“My Dearest Roy: I can't go on any longer! ' I stowed away on your ship even though you didn’t know It. I did it because I love you truly, so please forgive. Last night I gave myself up, so here T- am. -But Roy dear, I can’t go on any longer. lam going to do what you stopped me from doing the night before you left Melbourne.

“Good-bye Roy, and please think of me sometime. . . . eVen though I have done wrong in hiding, but you didn't know dear,' and now I am so sorry because T -can see the folly of such -an Impulsive action. Love from Phyllis (Elbon).’’

On the back of the statement was written: "Will the Under please give this to Mr Roy Aviila cabin steward, Monterey.” •C-aptain Johanson tendered a street snapshot of the stowaway and also a photograph of her and -a young man. On the back of the photograph the following was written:—

“Dear Roy: Please forgive'me, but I help doing >vhat I am going to do. You stopped; me In Melbourne, 'but you can’t this time, and remember I loved you truly. Thinlc of me sometimes." —Phyllis. “Please give this to Mr Roy Avllla, Cabin Steward, Monterey." / ‘ . Steward’s Evidence. Joseph Kennedy, an A. 8., said he was painting the davits when he saw the body of a woman hurtling through the air, feet downwards. He saw the body rise to the surface, head first, and the long blonde hair spread out on It. Roy Avllla, flrst-olass steward of the Monterey, said that he knew Miss Elbon. He first met Miss Elbon In a hotel lounge on December 6. That evening she accompanied him to Port Melbourne, and told him that she had had some trouble at home. He went aboard, and later found her on the pier, with her shoes and stooklngs off, and apparently distressed. He persuaded her to go home. She had told him that she Intended to board the Monterey, and he told her that It would be wrong to stow away. ' "I certainly had no knowledge of her being on the Monterey," Avllla added. “Had I known that she was on board I would probably have been the means of preventing her going over the side, In view of what had transpired on the pier."