MYSTERY UNSOLVED

NZ Truth, Issue 1215, 14 March 1929, Page 1

MYSTERY UNSOL VED

All Trails Terminate At Arthur's Pass

TRAGEDY THE CLIMAX?

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Christchurch Representative)

Almost a month has now passed since Nurse Dorothy Hamilton McHaffie left St. Helen's Hospital m Christchurch, ostensibly to spend a holiday with friends. Her baggage still remains unclaimed at the Arthur's Pass railway station, while other personal belongings, which she left behind her m Christchurch, are m possession of her friends, who have had no communication^... irom her." •"

'THOUGH the police have continued 1 without interruption their quest for the missing woman, they have exhausted every possible clue that would lead to her discovery, and, four weeks after she passed into obscurity, they are no wiser as to her whereabouts. As. is so often the case m such incidents, m;iny people have umdered, no doubt m good faith, information to the effect that they saw someone answering the description m different parts of Canterbury and the Went Coast, but so far as the police are concerned, they have proved groundless. It was reported by a resident m Kumara, that he saw a woman answering Miss McHaffie's description riding m a green car m . Kumara that day. "Truth's" investigator was able to trace the driver of one such car, a Christchurch wine and spirit traveller, who was m the locality at the time, but he stated that he gave nobody a lift, nor did he see many strange cars about the district at that time. At this time of the year the tourist traffic to and from the glacier is slackening off, and he stated that the principal users of the main roads were the service car drivers, and none of them has been able to recollect seeing anyone whose description tallied with that of the missing woman. A further report was received at Arthur's Pass by a traveller on the east bound express from Greymouth on the day Miss McHaffie was supposed to go to Kumara, that a woman had left the train and had travelled by road m a car with two men between Cass and Arthur's Pass. Publicity was given to the statement, however, and the police have been unable to trace anyone whose

Friends 7 Theories

movements on that day coincided with those reported. The only fact that the searchers have to work on ia that the woman has completely disappeared, leaving absolutely no trace of herself, and no indication of her likely whereabouts. According to those with whom she was closely connected, there appealed to be no reason for her to go away and hide herself, nor was there any reason for her to take her life. It is significant that each one of her friends emphatically declare that they have ho reason to believe that .she is dead. Yet when they are invited to suggest any alternative they are at a loss to propound any tangible theory that would lead to Miss McHaffie's discovery. The fact thnt Miss McHaffle kept very much to herself, and seldom __| discussed with her friends her more intimate problems m life, makes the mystery of her disappearance all the harder to solve. Following on over two weeks of painstaking investigations. "N.Z. Truth" is satisfied that there is only one person, or, at the most, two, who might have had some suspicion of what was behind Miss McHaffie's mind when she made the m6mentous decision to cut herself off, temporarily or permanently, from the ; world. If she needed rest there was ample opportunity for her to take it without adopting such unreasonable methods that have caused pain, anxiety and inconvenience to many people. On the other hand, any sinister motive she held to blot out any unhappy events could easily have been carried to completion m the silent vastness of the -Southern Alps, and, if this is the solution of. her mysterious disappearance, it might easily remain a secret with the rugged country m which she was last heard of