TAHAROA MYSTERY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1938, Page 8

TAHAROA MYSTERY

DISAPPEARANCE OF HINDU FALSE TEETH FOUND. STATEMENT BY AUCKLAND DENTIST. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, August 3. The discovery in a hedge at Taharoa of a complete set of false teeth and a complete upper denture about 10 days ago is a development in the mystery of the missing Hindu, Delu Desai, who disappeared on the night of May 7 from a store at Taharoa, where he was assisting another countryman. The teeth were found by members of a police party who have been searching daily since May 18, about the time when it was first suspected that the Hindu had been the victim of foul play. No trace of the body has so far been found, despite dragging of an eel-in-fested lake '-.nd a wide search ci the sand dunes. Last week a member of the large force of police in camp at Taharoa came to Auckland bringing three dentures. Many dentists in the city were interviewed, and on Monday, after an exhaustive round of dental rooms, a detective approached Mr C. Munro Emanuel, dentist, Queen Street. Mr Emanuel at first said that he believed the teeth were those of the missing Hindu, but when the police made a second call yesterday he told them that positive identification was not possible because about three months ago, in a periodic clean'up of old files, he had thrown out some of his records. “However, I know that in 1932 I made a set of false teeth for a Hindu named Delu Desai,” said Mr Emanuel to a reporter today. He added that the numbers stamped on the teeth were similar to those used in his system. Without his records it was impossible positively to identify the teeth. It is understood that the police ascertained that an account for teeth was sent to an address which tallies with that of the missing Hindu in 1932