A MOTORING MYSTERY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3119, 19 February 1909, Page 3

A MOTORING MYSTERY.

An extraordinary motor-car mystery is reported from Wales. Miss Violet Charlesworth, a young lady of 24, was driving one mounlight night along the coast between Conway and Penmaenmawr. Her sister and the chauffeur were found lying in a dazed condition near the edge of the road, in a place where it skirts a cliff, with a drop of some fifty feet to the beach. They told with difficulty a story of the car swerving suddently, crashing through the thick granite wall at the side of thu road, and of Miss Violet being swiftly hurled through the glass wind-screen of the car, and over the cliff. Here were all the elements of a terrible tragedy. People clambered down the rocks to the shore to rescue the body, but no body was to be seen. There were no marks on the rocks and no traces of blood. The water was only a foot deep. All that was found was a tam-o'-shanter and a notebook. Still, an accident might I conceivably have happened withotfc any other traces being left. But I the whole thing soon wore a very | suspicious appearance. Out of con- j sideration for the feelings of the sister of the victim and the chauffeur, who appeared greatly upset, the police officer in charge of the case l allowed them to go away without questioning them closely, intending to interview them next day. But next day he found that they had gone home without making any detailed statement. Then it occurred to people that a motor-car that had j hit a massive granite wall with j sufficient force to' knock it down ', must show some considerable dam- \ age as a result of the impact. Astonishing to relate, the car was quite , undamaged, and was taken away j witl) its own power. The mud-guards i were intact, and the lamps unbroken. But th° wind-screen was certainly smashed, the wall certainly had a hole in it, and the girl was certainly missing. The explanation generally accepted, according to latest advices, I was that the accident was built up for the occasion. rr he Charlesworth sisters, who were the daughters of a rural postman, lived in a most extravagant style. Miss Violet had taken sundry shooting lodges and country houses in England and Scotland for a period of years. She kept valuable dogs and ' motor cars, possessed splendid diamonds, and had heavy accou ts with the tradespeople and stockbrokers in t'ns City. Some papeis did not hesitate to say that her financial embarrassments were the reason for the disppeaari ance, and nobody believed that shu ! was lost over the cliff.