Sir Edmund asked to help in search

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 28

Sir Edmund asked to help in search

PA Hamilton The New Zealand High Commissioner to India, Sir Edmund Hillary, has been asked to help in the search for a missing Hamilton women.

The Hamilton police said they sent a message to Sir Edmund asking him to keep watching brief on inquiries into the disappearance of Ms Janine Shortt while holidaying in India. Her mother, Mrs Carol Cooper, of Hamilton, says she has not heard from her daughter since December 20.

Ms Shortt, aged 23, failed to arrive in Melbourne on January 7 to meet relatives.

Mrs Cooper said her daughter was travelling with an Iranian man who said he was an American gem dealer. Police inquiries have

confirmed that he was known by two different names. Mrs Cooper said she was naturally suspicious about the man, but said she had no evidence that he had anything to do with her daughter’s disappearance. Ms Shortt seemed to have faith in her companion, Mrs Cooper said. She had written to her grand-mother saying residents in Sri Lanka hqd asked the Iranian how much he would sell her for, but she told them not to worry because he would not do that. "We obviously do not realise in this part of the world what goes on over there,” Mrs Cooper said. She had many fears about her daughter’s fate, but she had nothing to indicate what might have happened to her.