Originally published September 7, 1945
HOMICIDE detectives are baffled by the strange disappearance of eight-year-old Valerie Eastwell, from Gol Gol, who was last seen on August 15.
Detective-Inspector J. Wiley issued an appeal for people within a radius of 50 miles of Gol Gol to supply police with information that might throw light on the case.
Landholders surrounding the town are requested to organise individual searches of their properties.
Assistance, if required, will be given by the police with police dogs Zoe and Suri.
Information likely to have connection with the case could be lodged at the Gol Gol Hotel, or the Mildura or Wentworth Police Stations.
Inquiries during the past three weeks had covered every aspect of the case.
Reports of screams heard in bush along the Swan Hill road, 14 miles from Gol Gol, on the afternoon of the girl’s disappearance, had been investigated without success.
A report by a bus party that they had seen a girl answering Valerie’s description in the company of an elderly man on the outskirts of Coomealla was thoroughly investigated.
It was discovered that the girl mentioned, although resembling the missing girl, was not connected with the case.
A party of police, assisted by volunteers from Gol Gol, Mildura and Wentworth, combed a large area surrounding the Gol Gol township.
A systematic elimination of sections of Lignum Swamp and Gol Gol Creek have now been excluded from future search lists.
Police dogs Zoe and Suri, like detectives and police involved in the search, are unrelenting in their investigations.
Because of the nature of the country scoured, several members of search parties were lost for several hours.
A search of sand hills beyond the Lignam Swamp proved fruitless.
Men followed bicycle tracks leading through the swamp towards the sand hills, but the tracks eventually disappeared in hard ground.
Investigations were made difficult by the presence of many other bicycle tracks made by searchers a week ago.
Valerie was last seen walking between neighbouring properties and both school and work had been optional to mark Victory in the Pacific, however only those with a wireless like the Eastwell family were first with the news, not long after sunrise.
School buses to collect children had already been set in motion and many of those unaware of the Allies’ success still attended class.
Instead, she crossed Gol Gol Creek to a nearby property where her brother William was pruning vines to tell him the news and that he wasn’t needed for work that day.
She then returned home before walking to an adjacent property belonging to the Potter family to collect a lettuce.
After again returning home, still wearing her school uniform, she left the lettuce in a string bag on the handle of the kitchen door before heading back to the same neighbouring property to play with children there.
Valerie’s family believe she never made the short distance back to her friends’ house.
When she failed to return home for the evening meal, parents George and Beatrice contacted police.
It sparked one of the country’s largest and longest searches at the time.
RAAF planes, experienced black trackers and Valerie’s father were among more than 120 searchers who unsuccessfully combed creeks and scrub looking for the girl.
An appeal for donations, on behalf of the Eastwell family, to assist the search were received from almost every part of the district and had reached 64 pounds.
Donations could be left at the office of Sunraysia Daily and were acknowledged the columns of the newspaper.
Her disappearance remains one of Sunraysia’s enduring mysteries.
