SENSATIONAL TURN

Chronicle (Levin), 11 October 1946, Page 5

SENSATIONAL TURN

Press Assn.

Ten-Year-Old Crime DASHT0MAKE ARREST

By Telegraph

-Copyright

.Received Thursday, 8.45 p.m. . SYDNBY, Oct. 10. ' Sensational developments in the ten-year-oid Lavers mystery, oc-' eurred today wlien deteetives visited a house at West .Dubbo, north west New South Wales, and arrested a ma'n who was later eharged with murder. Tlie arrest i'ollowed a 280-mile night dash by ear from Griffith; William Henry Lavers, aged 49, vanished i'rom his store at Glenelg, southern New South Wales, in September 1936, set.ting Ihe police a problem eomparable in Australian erimc history only with that oi' the famous Pyjama Girl e.ase. A bloodstained petrol pnmp handle with luiman hair and skin adhering, - was found outside the slore but no trace oi' Lavers or his body was ever discovered. Whan Ihe arrested man was charged in tlie Dubbo Court today, it was the first time in Australian history that a murder eharge had been laid without the body or part oi" it having been found. In ten years the police never relaxed their efforts to solve the mystery. Deteetive-Sergeant C. Ualman, one of Australia 's outstanding homicide experts, wrorked on the original inquiry and intensihed his investigation ai'ter receiving eertain information two years ago. Aceompanied hv other deteetives he drove to Orange last weekend and then' to Griffith where thev eombed the Riverina towns. Last night thev set off on an all night drive which led to the arrest at Dubbo. The man was remanded to appear at the Grenfell Court noar the scene of the disappearanee.