The Warwickshire Herald. — 1890-09-04 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

HAY MILLS GIRL MISSING.  Florence Shaw, whose parents reside at 12, George-road, Hay Mills, Birmingham, hal disappeared under circurnetances which seem to point to foul play. Miss Shaw, who is about teenty-one years of age, was assistant matron at the Shenley Fields Cottage Humes, Northfield. On July 24th last she obtained permission to visit her parents, and during the day she arrived at her home. On the evening of the following day she acoompanied her friends to Birmingham, and shortly before eight o'clock she entered a Harborne 'bus at New-street, her intention being to return to the Homes that evening. Her parents, after seeing her depart in the 'bus, returned home. Two or three days afterwards they received a communication from the matron of the Homes asking where their daughter was, as she had not returned and her leave of absence had expired. Enquiries were at once made, but beyond ascertaining that she had been seen in the 'hue when it had accomplished part of the journey nothing could be gathered concerning her. The parents of the missing girl have persevered with their enquiries, but up to the present time their efforts have not been attended with any satisfactory result. The girl was of exceptionally good character, modest, and of a somewhat retiring disposition, having practically no friends, male or female, outside the family circle, and being most reticent before strangers. The matron of the Cottage Homes gives her an exceptionally good character, and states that she never went out except to church, unless she were coming home as in this instance, and had no acquaintances outside the Homes. Knowing her moral character so well, her parents, who are in terrible suspense, are fully convinced that she has met with foul play, and think that she may have been met and maltreated, or, perhaps, murdered, during the time she was walking from the omnibus tat minus at Harborne to her destination. When saying "Good-bye" to them at the omnibus door she was equally cheerful as when at home, and it was without doubt her intention to go straight to the Cottage Homes, as usual. The parente have, with the help of some friends, searched as well as they can the interlying country between Harborne and Yardley, but without success. On the road it would be necessary for her to cross the canal at a point called the Lappet Tunnel on the Northfield-road. She is of attractive appearance and petite, and the fact that she had in her possession about £6 in money, and was wearing a watch and several finger rings, seems to favour the suspicion that she has met with foul play. Daring the whole of the time she was at home she was in the very best of health and spirits, and spoke with evident pleasure of her approaching holidays, which she arranged to spend in company with her mother at her grandfather's, is Leeds, to whom she was devotedly attached. She offered her parents 'daring the day a portion of her wages, which she I had just received; but her mother would not accept the money, and told her it she wished she would pay part of the rail. way expenses when they went for the holiday. A correspondent who writes to a daily contemporary directing laublic attention to the case points out that the canal at the tunnel should have been dragged, but this had not been done because in the first place the distressed parents could not afford to bear the expense of £2O, which, it is stated, such proceedinga would entail, and secondly, because the police have evinced no readiness to help in the search. It however, in a case of this kind, is surely the duty of the constabulary to participate in the search and have the canal dragged. Had a member of the force been missing the time that Mi-s Shaw has been, the whole of the resources of the county constabulary ef Worcestershire would have been requisitioned, and every water way in the locality would have been dragged with the utmost care. But because the parson missing is a girl whose moral character has been without a reproach, and who, it is not likely, has voluntarily diesappeared,officialism puts his hands in his pockets and does not move with effect or dignity. On Tuesday a representative of the Press wated upon Superintendent Waeley, of the Kings' Heath division of the Worcestershire police. The superintendent is of opinion that Mite Shaw never got to Harborne, anti is, in consequence, unwilling to take upon himself the responsibility of dragging the canal. That she actually did reach the 'bus term inueat Ha rbor ne ie rendered extremely doubtful by the fact that the conductor, although he remembers her entering the conveyance, cannot recollect seeing her leave it. Ilehas,itappeare,sent copies of the photograph of the mi•eing girl to several large towns in the Midlands, and to all the police stations in Worcestershire. Enquiries have been made at all these places, but in vain. Rumours have been in circulation, to the effect that Miss Shaw may have eloped with a young man who was at one time her sweetheart; but her father, who has been making enquiries with no ordinary sagacity and perseverance, attaches no credit to this story. His examination of her boxes leads him to believe that she has not taken sway so much as a spare pockethandkerchief. This fact, the compare. tively small amount of money she had in her pocket, and the knowledge that a fortnight later she might have left the hornets with all her luggage and with a further sum in her pocket, all negatiee the idea of a premeditated flight. Further, Mr. Shaw considers that the circumstances attending the disappearance of his daughter, and the enquiries he has since made discredit the idea of suicide, or the theory that person wished to get her out of the way either any y- death or by facilitating her temporary disappearance. But surely the police should not leave the unfurtunete parent to prosecute the search single-handed. The responsibility, we are of opinion, rests upon the Birmingham, the Staffordshire, and the Worceetershire police, but particularly upon the latter. A daily contemporary suggests that the canal should be searched with a sunken electric light supplied from a storeage capacity in a small boat. It is further pointed out that the electric light might also be used with advantage in the tunnel. We heartily approve of this suggestion, and hope that it will be taken up by the police authorities, with a view to an end being put to the perplexites of this painful and mysterious case.