A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 9016, 2 December 1907, Page 4

A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.

An extraordinary disappearance is reported from Victoria, borne three years ago a man named Alfred Boldner went- in for a dip in the sea, and was never seen to come out. He-entirely disappeared, and his relatives came to the conclusion that ho had been eaten by a shark. Guarantees were given to the A.M.P. Society, and the insurance money on Boldner was paid over. The, other day Boldner was seen hy three people wlio had known him, at a race meeting. The suggestion or mistaken identity seems to he OHt ; of the question, and one is left to j theorise why Boldner disappeared, i It is suggested that ho sustained i some injury to 'his head in -the j water, which affected his mind and ; caused him to forget his, identity. Such cases are not unknown. A Melbourne commercial traveller, while out on business one morning, fell off his bicycle and landed heavily on his head. He recovered sufficiently to return to his office, and at 1 o’clock left on his bicycle -r Ins home at Footscray. He di.i not roach his home, and the most soarchiag inquiries failed to find any trace cf him. Three months later ho turned up with an astonishing story, which close investigation failed to shake. He left his bicycle and tramped out into the country—this part of his adventures was a blank—and obtained work on a farm. Ho stayed there three mouths. wno Sunday morning his memory came back to him, and, filled with anxiety f n- his family, he borrowed a bicycle and rode homo. How ho came to he on the farm he could never tell. In the case of a Gippslaud business man, the loss of memory was gradual. Slight tricks of memory developed into lapses, which disorganised Ms business. Then ho disappeared completely and unaccountably. For two years there was no tidings of him, and he was given up for dead. Suddenly ho reappeared, restored to mental health, hut remembering oulv that ho had found himself in South Africa. Of ius wanderings in the interval ho could give no account.