MISSING BOY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3842, 8 September 1928, Page 2

MISSING BOY.

NO TRACE OF JIMMY MORGAN. The local police (Constables Owen and Bell) have kept up a rigorous search for the missing boy, Jimmy Morgan, since his reported disappearance on Wednesday afternoon from the farm at Whirokino. The river has been carefully dragged and searched from the scene of the locality to the Heads, despite the inclement weather, but without success. It is almost certain that the child fell into the river and was drowned.

The bank at the locality is only about four feet high, but the grass along it is of fescue which would easily cause a child to trip and fall. Normally there 'is a sandy beach in this locality, but owing to the “fresh” in the river the water reached right up to the bank on the day of the boy’s disappearance and was quite deep enough for a child of five years of age to drown in.

Further particulars in connection with the boy’s disappearance show that Mr. and Mrs. Whitlow were absent from the house at the time, being over at the cow-shed. About half an hour elapsed from the time the child was last seen until he was reported missing, hardly sufficient time to allow him to wander into the swamp nearby. A careful search of the swamp has been made and there is scarcely a possibility of him having wandered off in this locality.