Mystery of bones solved
TECHNOLOGY has provided answers in a Hobart missing person case stretching back more than 60 years.
Testing of human remains found on Mt Wellington has revealed they belong to Hobart woman Kathleen Maggie Baxter, who disappeared in 1955.
However, Coroner Simon Cooper said yesterday because of the time elapsed, it would probably never be known if Ms Baxter was involved in an accident, took her own life or was killed.
The remains were found in 1972, near the Organ Pipes, by some boys playing in the area. The bones had been in storage since being handed in to police.
In December last year, Coroner Olivia McTaggart directed the investigation into Ms Baxter’s death be reopened given fresh evidence had come to light.
The bones were identified as belonging to Ms Baxter after DNA was extracted and compared with a sample of saliva provided by Ms Baxter’s daughter.
Forensic anthropologist Dr Anne-Marie Williams conducted the examination at the request of the Coronial Division, which has been reviewing a number of long term missing persons cases.
Dr Williams found the remains were of a middle to older aged woman and which had been in situ for at least five years before being discovered.
There were signs of arthritis in both the neck and back bones.
“The skull had suffered significant post-mortem damage and several of the bones were extensively blackened and charred,” Mr Cooper said in his findings.
The charring could have been caused by the Black Tuesday bushfires which swept through Fern Tree in 1967.
Only three women were recorded as being missing during the time period identified.
By process of elimination the other two – Eileen Adeline Stewart and Lucille Gaye Butterworth – were excluded.
Ms Baxter, known as Maggie, was employed as domestic help at a residence in Elizabeth St. In May, 1955, when Ms Baxter was 43, she was reported missing by her guardian, Dea- coness Yoland. “Material on the original file indicates that she was, to use the terminology of the time, a ‘defective … under the control of the Mental Deficiency Board’,” Mr Cooper said.
After her disappearance was reported, the board wrote to the Commissioner of Police asking Ms Baxter be apprehended and admitted to St John’s Park when she was found.
The contemporary investigation file says Ms Baxter had been keeping company with a Edward Walmsley who she met at a dance at the City Hall a few months before.
The file also showed Ms Baxter withdrew £20 two days before her disappearance — a lot of money in 1955.
It also indicated Ms Baxter had “disappeared” before and had been located in the Fern Tree area.
Efforts were made to find Mr Walmsley after Ms Baxter’s disappearance but he was never spoken to by police. He died in NSW in 1961.
“I am satisfied that the bones found are the remains of Ms Baxter and that she is dead,” Mr Cooper found.
“However, the evidence does not allow me to make any finding as to the cause, circumstances or place and time of her death.