Family’s anger regarding the police decision not to associate with witnesses

The family of a young child, who disappeared from Australian beach more than 50 years ago, criticized the police for not officially interviewing potential eyewitnesses during a review.

Officers suspect that three -year -old Cheryl Grimmer was abducted by Fairy Meadow Beach, which is about 50 miles (80 km) south of Sydney in New South Wales (NSW) when It disappeared on January 12, 1970S The Grimmer family has just emigrated from the UK.

Now they have been told that the review, which took four years, did not provide new evidence that could lead to a sentence.

They are angry that three potential eyewitnesses who talked to the BBC have not been officially interviewed by employees, although their contact information has been handed over to the police.

Ricky Nash, Cheryl’s brother, said he felt “complete powerlessness” about the way he was processed, with which he realized that he was “intended to be a detailed, complete review” of the case.

“No words, just nothing,” he told the decision not to officially interview the potential eyewitnesses. “Our family cannot move forward without the help of the police.”

The three potential eyewitnesses came out after the BBC broadcast Fairy past a meadow real crime In 2022, which has since been drawn five million times.

A man who asked to keep his identity privately said he had seen a teenager carrying a small child from changing rooms to the beach on the day Cheril disappeared.

The man said he had a short chat on the phone with NSW police after he told the BBC about what he saw, but did not hear again from the power.

Damian Lawn, a retired detective who worked on Cheryl’s case, he said believed that a person’s testimony was “very credible”S

In 2017, a man of the 1960s was accused of abduction and murder of Cheryl after officers found a recognition made by a teenager in 1971.

Later, a judge ruled that recognition could not be presented as judicial evidence.

The defendant – known only by his police codenamed Mercury, because during the alleged crimes he was a minor – he was released in 2019 and All the accusations he refused had dropped outS

In a new episode of the Fairy Meadow podcast, the former SGT Loone ex “just can’t understand” why the police did not formally interview the man who spoke to the BBC, something he would do if he was still leading the investigation into Cheryl’s disappearance.

“I think this is a cleansing police work,” he added. “This is what they had to do and I can’t believe it didn’t happen.”

He said he believed that the man was “the only independent witness” who is on Fairy Meadow Beach, who saw a teenage boy – about 16 or 17 years old – with Cheryl on the day she disappeared.

“We know that the suspect Mercury was (from) this age group at the time,” he added.

Kay Tutton, another potential eyewitness, contacted the BBC to say he saw a man who takes a little girl from the beach the day Cheril disappeared.

“Just (I remember) this wonderful girl and she was very upset. And this man was tight in her hand and said” come on. “Obviously she didn’t want to go.”

Kay went to a police station shortly after seeing a news report that Cheryl disappeared in 1970, but the officers did not talk to her again after she told them what she saw.

The BBC has provided them with updated contact details, after Kay, now 82 years old, sent us an email about the podcast – but she didn’t hear from the officers.

Another woman who also wanted to keep her identity privately told us that a man approached a beach near Fairy Meadow a few days before Cheryl disappeared. She says she has not contacted NSW police.

“I have this information that I could give them and they are not interested, you know? I’m just disappointed,” she told us. “This can lead to something.”

Cheryl Ricky’s brother, who is 62 years old, was seven years old when she disappeared. The couple was together in changing rooms to Fairy Meadow Beach, but after he turned for a few seconds, she was gone.

He wrote an open letter emphasizing what he believes is the mistakes in the police investigation dating from the day she disappeared.

Petition with the request of the State Parliament to put an investigation into investigations on missing persons observed by NSW police, such as Cheryl, attracted more than 10,000 signatures this summer.

He was discussed in parliament, but in a letter in response to petitioners, the police and the fight against terrorism was not committed to conducting an investigation.

NSW police said all the information received, including potential BBC eyewitness accounts, was properly rated. They said it was not so that everyone who contacted them would be interviewed.

“Any submission is evaluated by his merits and subsequent decisions are taken in accordance with investigative standards and the importance of information to the facts established.”

They added that last September they met with Cheryl family members for a three -hour discussion about the police review, in which “all known and verified facts were clearly outlined.”

In 2020, 50 years after Cheryl disappeared, NSW police have offered an award of one million Australian dollars (529,000 British pounds) of anyone who has information that led to a successful sentence.

Ricky told us: “You offer a $ million award, people go ahead, don’t talk to them. Why offer the award?

“Was it just to appease our family, to calm the public just to look good – look as if you’re doing something? In fact, you’re not doing anything.”