The family of Cheryl Grimmer, a toddler who vanished from an Australian beach over half a century ago, has expressed their dismay with law enforcement, alleging a failure to formally interview potential eyewitnesses during a case review.
Cheryl Grimmer, aged three, disappeared from Fairy Meadow beach, approximately 80km (50 miles) south of Sydney in New South Wales (NSW), on January 12, 1970. Authorities suspect abduction in the case of the Grimmer family, who had recently emigrated from the UK.
The family reports being informed that the four-year review has not yielded any new evidence that would lead to a conviction.
The Grimmer family is particularly concerned that three individuals who spoke with the BBC, and were identified as potential eyewitnesses, were not formally interviewed by police, despite their contact details being provided.
Ricki Nash, Cheryl’s brother, conveyed his “total frustration” regarding the handling of the review, which he understood was intended as a “detailed, full review” of the case.
Expressing his disappointment at the decision not to formally interview the potential eyewitnesses, he stated, “There are no words, just nothing…Our family can’t move forward without the help of the police.”
The three potential eyewitnesses emerged after the airing of the BBC’s Fairy Meadow true crime podcast in 2022, which has since garnered five million downloads.
One man, who preferred to remain anonymous, reported seeing a teenage boy carrying a small child away from the changing rooms adjacent to the beach on the day of Cheryl’s disappearance.
The man said he had a brief phone conversation with NSW Police after relaying his account to the BBC but received no further contact from the force.
Damian Loone, a retired detective who previously worked on Cheryl’s case, has stated that he deemed the man’s testimony “very credible”.
In 2017, a man in his 60s was charged with Cheryl’s abduction and murder following the discovery of a confession made to police by a teenage boy in 1971.
However, a judge later ruled that the confession was inadmissible as evidence.
The defendant, known only by the police codename “Mercury” due to his status as a minor at the time of the alleged offences, was released in 2019, and all charges, which he denied, were dropped.
In a recent episode of the Fairy Meadow podcast, former Det Sgt Loone expressed his inability to “fathom” why police had not formally interviewed the man who spoke to the BBC, a step he would have taken if he were still in charge of the investigation.
“I think that’s sloppy police work,” he stated. “That’s what they should have done, and I can’t believe that it hasn’t happened.”
He added that he believed the man was “the only independent witness” present at Fairy Meadow beach who witnessed a teenage boy – aged approximately 16 or 17 – with Cheryl on the day of her disappearance.
“We know that the suspect Mercury was [of] that age group at the time,” he added.
Kay Tutton, another potential eyewitness, contacted the BBC to report that she saw a man taking a young girl away from the beach on the day Cheryl went missing.
“I just [remember] this lovely little girl, and she was very upset. And this man had her tightly by the hand and said ‘come on’. She obviously didn’t want to go.”
Kay visited a police station shortly after seeing a news report about Cheryl’s disappearance in 1970, but officers did not contact her again after she provided her account.
The BBC provided the police with her updated contact details after Kay, now aged 82, emailed them about the podcast; however, she has not received any communication from officers.
Another woman, who also requested anonymity, told the BBC that she had been approached by a man on a beach near Fairy Meadow a few days before Cheryl’s disappearance. She reports that NSW Police have not contacted her either.
“I’ve got this information that I could give to them, and they are not interested, you know? I’m just disappointed,” she stated. “It could lead to something.”
Cheryl’s brother Ricki, now 62, was seven years old when she disappeared. The pair had been together in changing rooms beside Fairy Meadow beach, but she vanished after he turned away for a few seconds.
He has authored an open letter highlighting what he believes are errors in the police investigation dating back to the day of her disappearance.
A petition requesting the state parliament to establish an inquiry into missing persons investigations overseen by NSW Police, including Cheryl’s case, garnered over 10,000 signatures this summer.
While the matter was debated in parliament, the state’s Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism did not commit to holding an inquiry in a letter responding to petitioners.
NSW Police stated that all information received, including potential eyewitness accounts obtained by the BBC, was properly assessed. They clarified that contacting them does not guarantee an interview.
“Each submission is evaluated on its merits, and decisions regarding subsequent action are made in accordance with investigative standards and the relevance of the information to the established facts.”
They added that they met with members of Cheryl’s family last September for a three-hour discussion regarding the police review, during which “all known and verified facts were clearly outlined.”
In 2020, marking 50 years since Cheryl’s disappearance, NSW Police offered a reward of one million Australian dollars (£529,000) for information leading to a successful conviction.
Ricki stated, “You offer a million-dollar reward, people come forward, you don’t speak to them. Why offer the reward?”
“Was that just to appease our family, appease the public, just to make yourselves look good – look like you’re doing something? In actual fact, you’re doing nothing.”
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