Ervin TOEROEK

 

 

Above - the hostel where Ervin was last seen.

 

"My father used to get a lift to work with Ervin each day. He lived across the road. Ervin was never late, always on time. He simply didn't show. Dad was one of the first who reported that something might have happened."

 - Vicki

 

 

Security Police search for Hungarian Chemist Missing from Lithgow

Canberra Times - Tuesday 13 September 1955

A search by security police for a missing Hungarian chemist has reached diplomatic level. International records are heing checked to see whether the chemist, Ervin Toeroek, had any political record which could explain his mysterious disappearance.
 
The 32-year-old migrant, who was employed by a chief chemist in the N.S.W. Mining Company's coal washing plant at Lithgow, disappeared from the Littleton migrant hostel on July 2. Security police took over the investigation at the suggestion of senior police officials. Security police are believed to
be working on two theories.

-That Toeroek- suicided,

-That, for political reasons, he was kidnapped and either smuggled from the country or murdered.
The suicide theory was weakened by two clues found by Lithgow police. The first was that Toeroek's front door key was still in the lock when police went to his room the day after his disappearance. The second is that Toeroek's wallet was placed in his drawer, after police searched it.
Toeroek's parents live in Bechescaba, Hungary. They were communicated with, but said they had heard nothing from their son in the past two months, and could offer no reason for his disappearance. Toeroek, a devout church goer and a man highly respected by employers and fellow workers, had no known political affiliation. A check has been made on all overseas shipping and airlines in case he left the country under his own name, but it has proved
fruitless.
Toeroek sold a house he was building at Kandos for £600, shortly before he disappeared. Lithgow police were told Toeroek went to Sydney on July 2
with two friends, to see a football match. When he returned to the hostel he went upstairs to a neighbour and borrowed some bread and butter.
The neighbours told police that about the time Toeroek would have reached his front door, they heard a car drive into the grounds of the hostel.
The occupants of the car called out to Toeroek. The neighbours said that when they looked out their window soon after the car had gone.
They assumed Toeroek, had returned to his room. When they found his key in the lock next morning, and could not find him, they got in
touch with the police.
Scientist vanished in midnight drama the Argus September 1955
SYDNEY, Monday:

It was midnight on July 2 this year when a car pulled up outside the Lithgow home of Hungarian scientist Ervin Toeroek. Toeroek, answering a call from people in the car, went to the road. He has not been seen since.

He took no clothes, and left his wallet. Police and security agents are investigating a theory that he was smuggled from the country.
Toeroek left his family and girl friend in Communist-ruled Hungary to come to Australia. He was naturalised a few months before his disappearance. Toeroek, chief analytical chemist at the N.S.W. Mining Company's coal-washing
lant, was arranging to sell his new house at the time he vanished. Friends of the reserved 32 year-old scientist said to day he was given to fits of depression.

 

Woman May Be
Kidnap Decoy
SYDNEY, Tues 13/9/1955 :

A woman may have been

used as a decoy to kidnap brilliant Hun
garian industrial chemist Ervin Toeroek (32).
Toeroek disappeared
rrom Lithgow m western
NSW on July 2 last.
One theory is thaf he has
been smuggled back to Hun
gary.
The chemist, working at
Lithgow, had discovered new
industrial and chemical tech
niques to boost coal produc
tion;
The woman wrote love-let
ters to him for six months,
but has not written since he
vanished. #
Police have now called in
security men on the ease.
Last Seen
Toeroek disappeared after
saying good night to a friend
in a hostel where he lived.
His love-letters from Klara
Kovacs, of Beker (Hungary),
are the only papers missing
from his room.
She is said to have told
Toeroek she would marry
him and to have asked him
to return to Hungary.
Toeroek and Klara (about
24) knew each other slightly
in Beker. Both were middle-
class people.
Toeroek was anti-commu
nist. Klara is a keen commu
nist. She joined the Commu
nist Party and worked in a
people's co-operative store.

 

CHEMIST SEARCH
TURNS TO
HUNGARY
LITHGOW: 15/9/1955

The underground in

Red-occupied Hungary is desperately
trying to trace missing chemist Ervin
Toeroek. »
Hungarian migrants here have asked
underground friends to make an exhaustive
search.
Most ore friends of Toe
roek and they are con
vinced he has been kid
napped and smuggled be
hind the Iron Curtain.
Some of these migrants
used the underground to
escape from Communism
to Australia.
Toeroek. 32, chief
chemist at the NSW Min
ing Co.'s coal washing
plant, mysteriously van
ished on July 2.
Police in all States have
been alerted.
Toeroek is 5ft. 5ins.
tall, is nearly bald and has
a high forehead and buck
teeth.
Escaped from
terrorism
In 1949, Toeroek escaped
from terrorism to find a
new life in Australia.. He
left a beautiful lover in
Hungary.
For years he courted
the beautiful Rossika. In
1952 she married another
man and now has two
children.
Toeroek took the
break badly and still
carried Rossika's picture
in his wallet.