MYSTERIOUS CASE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5108, 30 March 1927, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS CASE.

ASLEEP IN THE BUSH. SEVEN GIRLS FOUND. The finding of seven children asleep in the bush near Yarra Bay Junction, is one of the strangest cases, of its kind the police have ever investigated (says a Sydney paper). The children, who are members of two families who lived in Jones’ Street, Ultimo, told the police that their mothers sent them to Yarra Bay in the afternoon, and instructed them to wait there until they arrived. The mothers did not come for their children, and no trace has been found <,f them since.

The names of the children are: Dorothy Armstrong (12), Alice Armstrong (10), Kathleen Armstrong (5), Daphne Jones (12), Margaret Jones(7), Mabel Jernes (5), and Dolly Jones (2). Constable Ryan, of Long Bay, found the children. They were lying side by side in the scrub not far from the tramline, and had two blankets wrapped round them. The younger girls seemed to be very scared, and the elder children were doing everything possible to comfort them. One or the girls told Constable Ryan how they made the trip to Yarra Bay. She said that their mothers wanted to have them out of the way while they were moving. Their mothers took them to the Central Railway Station, gave them two blankets, and put them on a train bound tor La Perouse.

The girls were told to alight at Yarra Bay Junction and to wait there until 10 p.m., when they would be taken home.

Constable Ryan found the children shortly after 9 p.m., and though he waited till after eleven o’clock the mothers did hot put in an appearance.

Ryan then reported to police headquarters, and the children were taken by motor car to the Bidura Home for Girls, Glebe Point. They appeared at the Children’s Court, the case being remanded for a week. Constable Ryan and other police are searching for Mrs Jones and Mrs Armstrong,, but have found no trace of them. Constable Ryan ascertained that they had lived in Jones Street, Ultimo, but neighbours he interviewed could not tell him where they had moved. It is believed that the fathers of the children are dead.