Name: Norma Helen King
Case Classification: Missing
Missing Since: January 1, 1967
Location Last Seen: Pearce Air Base, Western Australia.
Date of Birth: Circa 1934
Age: 33 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 165 cm.
Hair Color: Dark hair, thick, wavy, shoulder length
Eye Color: Light brown
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Fair complexion, light freckles below eyes and across bridge of nose and upper cheeks. No known distinguishing features or marks.
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: At the time of her disappearance she is reported to have been dressed in ordinary house clothing for the era, wearing an apron, and believed to be carrying a contemporary shopping basket.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Norma King is reported to have disappeared after telling her 8 children she was taking a quick walk to the shops in the course of preparing the evening meal. No personal effects or clothing were noted to be missing from the family home after her disappearance.
Norma was possibly observed by one of her children entering a holden motor car which was parked some distance down the road.
At the time of her disappearance, Norma had 8 children aged from 13 to approximately 3 months. Information is extremely sketchy and is based on anecdotal recollections of her family.
VERSION 1:
Norma's mother and brother were informed of her disappearance by her then husband, Lawrence King, then serving at the Pearce RAAF base in Western Australia. The family took Lawrence King at his word that Norma had simply "walked out". Neither Norma's mother nor her brother reported the matter to the Police both being under the impression at the time that Lawrence King had reported her disappearance and that the police were acting accordingly.
Lawrence King died within three years of Norma's disappearance. The New South Wales Police are attempting to liaise with the Western Australia Police with a view to establishing whether or not a missing person report was ever filed in relation to Norma. Initial investigations have failed to disclose any such report having been filed. Accordingly, Grave concerns are held as to what actually occurred to Norma King.
VERSION 2:
Norma King was supposed to have left her 8 children with an orphanage in Western Australia and simply walked out on her family. If this account is to be given credence, the orphanage made no contact with either Norma's mother or brother. The children are known to have grown up in foster home placements. The origin of this account appears to be Lawrence King.
It is known that the children were placed in various informal "foster home" type placements by Lawrence King himself and NOT through any government or government affiliated agency.
Lawrence King is reported to have been a somewhat moody and sometimes hot tempered man, prone to not infrequent drinking binges and unexplained absences from the family home for several days at a time. This behavior is likely to have arisen as a consequence of head injuries he received in a motor vehicle accident around 1960 reputedly in the Wanda Beach region of New South Wales.
It appears that Norma King had grown increasingly concerned at the behavior of her husband by the time of her disappearance. Divorce had apparently been discussed and Lawrence King had threatened that he would not allow Norma to have the children.
Agency Name: New South Wales Police
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 02-60239268
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: N/A
Australian Missing Persons Register
Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 08-23-2021 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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