Katherine Kovacic - The Schoolgirl Strangler

Chapter 1

Saturday, 8 November 1930 was an unseasonably warm Melbourne day. Humidity was high, the temperature reached 31C, and a hot northerly blew strongly. Shortly after 2 p.m., a cool change swept through the city and, with the abrupt drop in temperature, the remainder of Saturday afternoon stretched pleasantly ahead of the Griffiths children.

Their father, Thomas Griffiths, was 26 when he wed Alice Weaver in 1906. The couple went on to have 14 children. Thomas enlisted in the AIF early in 1916, but soon after embarkation he was hospitalised with severe bronchial catarrh. The condition had such an impact on him that he was discharged from the military within months and returned to Australia. He continued to work as a labourer, however his health problems never entirely resolved. The nature of his work, together with the post-war economy, meant the family moved around often. Mena Alexandra Griffiths was born in Prahran in September 1918, but over the next decade the family lived in several locations in and around Melbourne. By the time Mena was 12, the Griffiths were living in the inner suburbs, this time in South Yarra; both Menas father and her older brother, Leslie, had been unemployed for several months and hoped to find work in the area. The Griffiths took up residence at 22 Caroline Street and Mena and her younger sisters were enrolled at the State School on Punt Road.

South Yarra was a suburb in flux. With a mixture of gracious homes and smaller workers cottages, it lay between Toorak, home to some of Melbournes wealthiest people, and the more working-class Prahran. In the years following World War I, many of South Yarras larger properties were subdivided, and by the 1930s the suburb was already well-established as one of medium-density living.

The Griffiths home was further away from the premier streets, a single-fronted Victorian workers cottage that would have been quite a squeeze for the entire family; almost unimaginable today, but not unusual at the time. The three eldest siblings had already moved out, but in 1930 there were still nine children at home, ranging in age from four to 17 years. One thing the house at 22 Caroline Street did have was proximity to the city and to Fawkner Park, a 101-acre (41-hectare) green wedge laid out with formal paths, avenues, sporting areas and a playground. From the Griffiths house, it was only a two-minute walk through residential streets to one of the parks entrances. Happily, it was the entrance closest to the childrens playground.

At half past two on the afternoon of 8 November 1930, Menas mother, Alice, saw her daughter playing in the backyard. Mena was wearing brown shoes and a white dress over a singlet, petticoat and bloomers. At 4 feet 8.5 inches (144 centimetres) she was short for her age but she was a sturdy child, with blue eyes, fair skin, and brown hair cut in a practical bob.

Fifteen minutes later at around a quarter to three, Mena asked her father if she could go to the park with her younger sisters, Joyce, Daphne and Dawn. Thomas gave his permission and saw the children gathered at the front gate, but didnt see them leave; Mena had put on a green coat over her dress.

This would be the last time Thomas Griffiths saw his daughter alive.

Joyce Griffiths, eight years old at the time, would later say that although the girls went to Fawkner Park together, they ended up playing slightly apart. Perhaps Mena wanted to distance herself from her younger siblings? Permission may not have been granted for her to go to the park alone, but was easy to obtain when it was a question of acting as big sister. Mena was on the joy wheel (roundabout) when Joyce saw a man she didnt know approach her sister. According to Joyce, the man said, I want you to go a message [sic] and do not tell anybody where you are going.

All right, said Mena, but then asked if Joyce could go too.

Two cant go, replied the man.

With that, the stranger and Mena left the park at Pasley Street, Joyce trailing some steps behind.

This part of the story was later corroborated by independent witnesses. Around half past three, Henry Carlos, an engineer who lived in South Yarra, was on his way to play cricket in Fawkner Park. As he entered the turnstiles at the Pasley Street North entrance, he noticed four girls talking to a man. He would later identify one of those girls as Joyce Griffiths.

Around the same time, Carlene Hawk and her mother, Lillian, were sitting in a car parked on Pasley Street watching the cricket. Carlene was not fully involved in the match, so she frequently glanced across at the group of children playing on nearby swings. Her attention was caught by a man leaving the park with two girls, presumably Mena and Joyce. Although Carlene couldnt swear to the ages of the two girls, she thought one must be older than the other as there was nearly a head difference in the height of the two. Carlene watched as the man, accompanied by the two girls, walked along Pasley Street in the direction of Punt Road. Lillian Hawk also saw the man and two girls leave the playground and head toward Punt Road.

As Joyce and Mena were leaving the park with the man, Dawn called out, Mena, Mena, Mena! and the two younger sisters, aged four and six, came running up.

Heres a penny, the man said, and gave Dawn and Daphne a penny each. He also offered money to Joyce, who initially refused but subsequently accepted. In his hand, the man also had a brown, ten-shilling note which he showed to Mena.

Ill give you some money out of that, he promised.

The man and the four Griffiths girls continued walking through the back streets until they reached Commercial Road. Somewhere along that road the man told Joyce, You wait here and Ill bring your sister back. Then, perhaps at the urging of the generous stranger, the three younger girls went into a lolly shop to spend their money.

When they came out there was no sign of the man.

And no sign of Mena Griffiths.

Just after five oclock that afternoon, Thomas Griffiths saw his daughters Joyce, Dawn and Daphne arrive home without their older sister. Joyce immediately told her father that a man they had met in the park had asked Mena to run an errand for him. While cause for some concern, this did not immediately alarm Thomas. In the 1930s, it was unthinkable that a stranger would abduct a child, let alone from a public park in broad daylight. Also, the Griffiths girls regularly played in Fawkner Park, and on another occasion Mena had met up with some children and become distracted by their game, not coming home until around 8 p.m. Consequently, Thomas waited a short while before unease drove him out to look for his daughter.

With still no sign of her, he returned home and waited a little longer, until just after six oclock, before setting out once more. This time he made a more extensive search, but still failed to find any trace. Finally, after 8 p.m., he went to the police station and reported Mena missing. Then, with the help of his two sons, Frederick and Leslie, he spent the night scouring the streets. They combed every inch of Fawkner Park several times before returning home to see if there was any news. Heading out again, they worked their way through St Kilda and Prahran and down to The Alfred Hospital, hoping to find her there. A staff member at The Alfred rang around other hospitals, but none had any news. The Griffiths men lost track of time, but at around 4 a.m., about an hour before dawn, they returned to Caroline Street, exhausted, afraid, and without a single clue as to what had become of Mena.