SEARCHERS CONFUSED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 593, 26 July 1933, Page 2

SEARCHERS CONFUSED

MISSING GIRL'S DOUBLE FOUND WITH SAME NAME. I EVEN BRIOTHER AMAZED. Melbourne, Saturday. The mystery of the disappearance of Laura Clarke, aged 12, has been heightened by the discovery that she has a double, also named Clarke. It was this igirl whom people had seen dancing at a city hotel, with a youth of 17, on Sunday, and whom a porter reported having seen boarding a train for Mornington on Wednesday. The likene'ss between her and the missing girl amazed even Laura's brother. Laura Clarke, a day pupil at the Methodist Ladies' College, Glenferrie, accompanied her father, mother and an elder- sister to Bairnsdale three weeks ago and vanished while playing on a moored motor boat on fhe Mitchell River. Her father is a shop fitter, and had a contract at Bairnsdale. It was while he was attending to his work that the moth'er and two daughters went along the bank of the river to view the seenery. Mrs. Clarke and her elder daughter were out of sight of Laura for only a few minutes, and since then she has not been seen. The ' river has been 'dragged, neighbouring islands and aboriginal camps have been intensively combed, but all efforts to locate her have failed. To-day Mr. Clarke determined to return again to the Mitchell River, taking with him a diver, to search the bed of the river adjacent to the moored motor boats. It was thought that she might have been held down by snags, ' but a 'thorough search made by Diver Callard failed. Mr. Clarke does not believe the girl was drowned. He is convinced she was lured away, and that she is being forcibly detain'ed. Tt w.as to satisfy himself again that h'e took a diver to Bairnsdale.