GIRL’S FOOLISH INFATUATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1748, 3 November 1917, Page 3

GIRL’S FOOLISH INFATUATION.

UATION.

THE DUNEDIN ELOPEMENT. Further details of the mystery attaching to the disappearance of a married man named Henry Young and a young girl, just under 17 years of age, from Dunedin, about' three weeks ago, and referred to in our last issue, are published in the Auckland Herald. The man Young, who is a labourer, 34 years of age, and who has been also know’n by the name of Youkendyz, was arrested in Auckland on Monday evening by Detective Sweeney, on a charge of w’ife desertion, and w T as remanded to Dunedin, The girl, who disappeared from Dunediil on the same day that Young was missed, also has been discovered in Auckland, and has told a story to the police. The girl states that she will attain her 17th birthday next month. According to her statement, she became acquainted with Young through the latter frequently visiting her father, at the latter’s house, in Dunedin. An attachment w’as formed between Young and herself, and they took frequent opportunities of meeting. Subsequently her parents, she states, suggested that she should go to the country for a month’s holiday. She acquiesced in this suggestion, but instead of taking the trip,, she agreed w’ith Young that they should leave Dunedin together. They arranged a plan of covering their tracks, and at once proceeded to carry it out. They purchased new’ outfits of clothing, for which Ihe man paid. The latter then arranged for the use of tw r o rooms at a hotel, where they changed their clothing. They then took the garments that they had discarded to the beach at St. Clair, left them there amongst some lupins, and returned to the city. Later in the day they left Dunedin by train for Oamaru. As"they had anticipated, their clothes were found on the beach and identified. They had anticipated that it would be supposed that they bad been drowned whilst bathing, and that, therefore, there would be less likelihood of their being traced. According to the girl’s narrative, the pair travelled by successive stages to Oamaru, Ashburton, Christchurch, Wellington, New’ Plymouth, and Auckland. They changed their assumed names at each stage, always travelling under the same name as “Mr and Miss.” The girl asserts that they occupied separate rooms at the various hotels at which they stayed until they reached Auckland, where they arrived on Wednesday last —a fortnight after leaving Dunedin. They kept apart during the steamer journey from Lyttelton to Wellington, and did not once speak to each other on the voyage.

On arriving in Auckland, the man and the girl, according to the latter’s statement, stayed at a boardinghouse as man and w’ife, and afterwards took furnished lodgings. The man obtained employment in the city, but bis mind apparently was ill at ease, and on Monday evening he surrendered himself to the policeami w’as taken into custody on the charge of wife desertion. It is stated that he has four children. The girl is now’ in the care of a resident of Auckland, with wdiora she will remain until Ihe arrival of her parents from Dunedin.