Michael Adams

They're not expected back at any particular time.

And it's not until the 9th of May that the Sunday Times in Perth raises the alarm saying these two veteran detectives, Walsh and Pittman,

aren't accounted for.

There's some fears held for them.

On the goldfields, the fellow police had gone to their huts, looked through the windows, seeing that nothing had been changed.

Eventually, they broke in.

They looked through the occurrence book that they kept.

There were just no clues as to where they'd gone.

But they saw that they hadn't taken any supplies, they hadn't taken warm clothing, and they hadn't arranged for their pays to be remitted to their wives in Perth.

So it was clear that they

had gone out probably for a short stakeout and not returned.

So it was possible they'd gotten lost and succumbed to the elements.

There were like thousands of abandoned mine shafts.

So it was also possible that they'd been investigating one of these dummy mines, there's been some rotten timbers, it's collapsed and they've gotten into trouble.

Most likely, though, grave fears were held that they'd stumbled upon some operation and they'd been murdered.

So there was a massive search.

They got cops coming in from Perth.

Now, like I said, these two between them had 50-plus years.

They'd worked in the CID in Perth.

They'd worked in the gold fields.