Search For Missing Hospital Porter

Chronicle (Levin), 22 December 1947, Page 5

Search For Missing Hospital Porter

Ptess Assaciation)

(Per

' TIMARU, Dec. 21. Reinforced by eoiistables from outlying distncts, the Timaru poliee are making an intensiVe search l'or ihe Itody oi' a girl aged 12, Vaimai lretie Phillips, of 20 Royal Street, Timaru. Her body disappeared from tlie morgue at tlie Timaru Puhlie Hospital in the early hoitrs oi' Saturday morning-. A ))orter employed at the hospital is also missing and is wantod by the police l'or qliestioning. Vaimai Phillips, who was the eldest daughter of JVLr. and Mrs. 1). Phillips, Timaru, died in the hospital on Friday afternoon. A post mortem was to have been made as it was suspected she had inl'antile paralysis or alternativelj spinal meningit is or sleeping sickUess at the timo of her death. Ali paralysis tests had proyed nega- + 1

Tlie body was placed in the hos pital morgue at 1.30 Saturday morning-.- It was last seen in the morgue at that tiine hy the hospital porter on duty, JMr. Ilenry MeKeever. Returning to the morgue at 3.30 a.m. Mr. McKee ver found a window of tlie building open. The girl's body had vanished. At 4.30 a.m. a man carrying a heavy suitease was seen leaving tlie hospital grounds and a car, believed to have heen used hy the missing porter, was found 011 a beach bait' a mile from tlie hos pital. The number jDlates of the car had been removod and the vehicle was hogged dee]i in the sand near a disused wharf. A tieket which had been attaehed to the shroud on the body was found underneath tlie car. The missing porter had lieen on tlie staff of the hospital for about three weeks. His deseription. given by tlie police, is thaat of tall man with long l'air hair. He has a 'Tine" moustache and a vacant loo kahout the evesV

Using aircral't over a wide area and with eoiistables eombing Timaru Park which is adjaeenl the hospital, aUhorough search is being earried out by the police. Dragging operations are being eontimied and Ihe police have beeii patrolling the coastline without respite. The search is under (he supervision of rnspector I). L. (.'ahlwcll and Senior Deteetive M M. Thomas. A pond in Timaru Park has been drained and all parks and re serves in the borough have been probed. The South Canterbury Aero Cluli's planes. besides patroiling low over the coastline, also covered Ihe eountryside near the Temuka and Pareora Rivers. Today the search was hampered hy had weather, the aircraft being grounded for most of the day. Tlie missing porter, who is a Xortli lslander, kept apart from his colleagues at the hospital and little is known of his past history by the police. Tlie car he is he lieved to liave used was-stolen from Hamilton six months ago. It is now at the Timaru police sta tion. Early Saturday morning a seehnd car, a small Hillman- carrying the licenee plates 2T5-412, was report ed missing from the Timaru Hospital grounds. In search for this car which is believed to have been taken by the porter, the police have sent out a deseription to all broade.asting stations and all Hillman ears travelling north and soutli of Timaru were halted for inspeetion on Saturday. There k a possibility that the licenee plates have been ohanged and either oi the two following plates may Jfave , been used — 61-707 or 213-520. Vaimai Phillips was the eldesl of a family of seven children. She had been a patient at the Timaru Hospital since last Tuesday.