Call for representative body for cold case families

The brother of a three-year-old girl who vanished in 1970 has urged the formation of a body to advocate for families of long-term missing persons and victims of unsolved murders. Cheryl Gene Grimmer was abducted on January 12, 1970, near Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong, New South Wales. Despite a 2011 coroner's ruling that she was likely dead, her body has never been found, and the circumstances of her death remain unknown.

Her brother, Paul Grimmer, expressed his family's emotional distress, stating they were left "broken" by the lack of answers. In his written submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry, Mr. Grimmer criticized the NSW Police for failing to keep the family informed about the case's developments over the years. He called for police to improve their communication with bereaved families and proposed the creation of a peak organization to represent the interests of loved ones of missing persons and homicide victims.

No family should endure what my family endured, Mr. Grimmer asserted. Despite a recent search by NSW Police that uncovered animal bones in Wollongong's Balgownie suburb, former assistant commissioner John Laycock, who retired in 2004, highlighted significant shortcomings in the force's handling of historical unsolved homicide cases in his submission.

Laycock deemed the inquiry, chaired by Legalise Cannabis Party MP Jeremy Buckingham, a "diversion" of resources better utilized elsewhere, arguing it was beyond the scope of politicians to assess homicide investigations.