SYDNEY MYSTERY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 80, 1 October 1931, Page 6

SYDNEY MYSTERY

A MURDERED GIRL

SECOND GIRL MISSING

CRYPTIC MESSAGES

(From "Tho Post's" Roprcsontativo.) SYDNEY, 24th September. Sensation followed sensation in quid (succession as tho police pressed foi ward with their inquiries following; th< brutal murder in a basement in Phillij street, Sj'dney, oi! the 15-year-old gir Sheila M,arjorio Gilligan. The wholi story provides ono of tho most amazinj ' mysteries rovealed in tho city for man} years. Mrs. Bryce, the dead, girl's aunt whose body .was found in the sea. at I nearby suburb, was caretaker of th( rooms above the basement in which the girl was done to death. She was the - mother of two sons and a daughter, al] _ of whom reveal mental capacity above _ the ordinary. Ono of the strangest features of- the ease, and that which connected Mrs; Bryce with tho violent death of tho girl,, were two yague and cryptic messages of which, beyond all doubt,. she was the., author. Her son I picked up one* of these' notes on, Sunday morning last, more than twentyfour hours before the body was discovered. It was in the handwriting which ho re'eognised as that of h.is mother, but it was signed" "May Bfyce." This formal way, of signing a message to her son .was'1, .the'1 first/of'several facts that supported the theory that her reason had snapped under some great mental strain. SECOND GIRL MISSING. Tho message ■ advised . the son that she would ;be iway.for about a week, and told him not to enter the front bedroom, as there ..was a.lady in.bed. The bedroom door, which is approached by a narrow stairway leading to the basement, was locked. It is now- clear that Sheila Gilligan was battered to dea late on Saturday night or t>n Sunday I • morning, - although .her' body was not discovered, until noon .on Monday. It ) ia also. fairly certain that when Mrs. Bryce wrote the note she was aware I of the fate of the girL Ev^ry indica- , tion. points to the fact that either late on Saturday night or early on; Sunday morning: Mrs. Bryce left, the city for Oronulla, a seaside siiburb, where she had resided until some years It is known that she had a daughter,' Dpi-, cie Bryce, aged 18, and when thfe police sbught to. interview' that girl; another amazing-stage in the-mystery waa '. reached.1 ' The "girl has completely' dis- - appeared, and it-is now, feared that she, too, is dead. . . , ••; Mrs. Bryce reached Sutherland, near Cronulla, some time on Sunday. The telegraph "office would then have been .. closed. In,.the. postal box at the Post Office on Monday morningwas found an envelope addressed to tho postmaster. It contained a noto in a woman's handwriting,- asking the postmaster to send" to "Mr. W; A.,Holman, K.C., whose chambers are in a Phillip street buillding, a certain telegram, the. text of which was enclosed. It warned Mr. llolms,n to send for a policeman to open the door, and to keep certain people out of tho room. The telegram was signed "May Bryce." Out of this welter of mystifying circumstances emerges one clear fact —that Mrs. Bryco had spent either one or two days at Crooulla before she went into the sea. What was'she doing there, and was her daughter with her before her death occurred at 6 o'clock^ en Monday evening? . Mrs. Bryce'a body was found by the merest chance, a little before 11 o 'clock on Monday night. She was fully dressed, and the only injury appeared to be an abrasion on the right temple. This tho police considered could have been caused by the dragging of the face over the shell deposits in the sand. PUZZLING FACTORS. "When the detectives commenced their - search for Dulcio Bryce, the only available cluo to her-movements was that her attendance was urgently desired at two University lectures on Tuesday. But she did not attend either of the lectures. It was not known whether her absence was consistent with her death or with her grief and mrntal stress at what had happoncd to her mother and her cousin. However, it is thought that she would ha.v_c reported her3elf to the police had she been alive. The fact that nobody has seen her alive' since the week-end supports tho theory that her body,- too, will bo found in the surf at Cronulla, for a womanand a gill wero seen sitting on the rocks at tho Cronulla Beach on Monday aftornoon. Neither appeared to sho|w any definite evidence of distress. On Tuesday morning, on tho rocks where they had been seen, a man found two coats, two pairs of shoes, two handbags, and two glasses which had contained whisky. Near the handbags was a scribbled note in tv woman's handwriting, and reading: "Tbc person finding this pteaso deliver it to my son.—His Mother." '_ Tfio question arisen, was tho girl Mrs. Bryce's daughter? If so, what happened as the two sal on the rocks? Did the mother tell her daughter of her mental stress? Did tho mother induce her daughter tor enter into a suicide pact? | It transpires that Sheila GilKgan, who was an orphan, had been cared for by her aunt for some years. An attack of infantile* / parlyßis,..had arrested the girl's development, and her mentality was that of a child of 10. She was well developed1 physically, however, but she had been disposed to place childlike faith and' confidence; in everybody. It was clear front the condition of the girl that her trust had been ruthlessly abused' by /some man,, and this, the detectives suggest,* supplies the motive for the crime. ' if is said that Mrs. Bryce had shown signs of j pressing worry during'the last few months. It is understood .that the source of this worry was partly financial. It is presumed, however, that she might have been acquainted'with the condition of Shield Gilligan, who was in her charge, and for whom she felt a cortain re-, sponsibility. -Did this added worry destroy the woman's reason?