Facial Reconstruction, c1938

Painted plaster facial reconstruction of the Pyjama Girl, modelled by New South Wales policeman, Cecil Jardine c1938. Between 1934 and 1944, the exotically titled ‘Pyjama Girl case’ became the nation's most well known unsolved murder. The Pyjama Girl's body was discovered in a culvert in Albury on 1st September 1934. The body was subsequently preserved for purposes of identification in a zinc-lined bath at the anatomy department of Sydney University. The case was a national and international cause celebre and a severe embarrassment to the NSW police. Ultimately, the Pyjama Girl was identified as Linda Agostini and her husband – in a somewhat sensational confession to the then Commissioner of Police, William J Mackay – named himself as her killer. The effort to crack the Pyjama Girl case lead to some remarkable and groundbreaking activities in the area of forensic facial reconstruction.

Two sculptural busts of the Pyjama Girl were modelled by Cecil Jardine, one of them painted in life-like colours in order to suggest how the Pyjama Girl – severely disfigured due to burns, facial battering and a gunshot wound – might have appeared prior to her injuries. Both of these plaster models now reside in the collection of the Justice & Police Museum. The Pyjama Girl case has now assumed an iconic status in popular memory. Many objects, photographs and documents generated by the case, including busts, death masks, a bath-tub, coffin, forensic and morgue photography, dental charts and court transcripts are currently held by the Justice & Police Museum. This material provides insight into the variety of forensic disciplines and investigative methodologies applied in order to solve this crime.