Leanne Beth GOODALL

   

 

*Editor's note - News Limited requested that I remove the other photo of Leanne and that of her mother.

DOB: 1958
HAIR: Brown BUILD: Medium EYES: Brown
CIRCUMSTANCES:
Leanne Goodall was last seen on 30 December, 1978 when her brother dropped her off at Muswellbrook Railway Station NSW. She was later seen at the Star Hotel in Newcastle. She was due to start a course at Newcastle Technical College in February 1979. She has not been seen or heard from since. Leanne's failure to return home or contact her family is out of character. There are concerns for her welfare.
Reported missing to: Missing Persons Unit.

 

Coroner blasts 'extraordinary' inquiries into missing women

By Ellen Connolly - SMH
July 4 2002
 

The State Coroner, John Abernethy, lashed out yesterday at the handling of the original investigations into three missing women, saying it was extraordinary that leads were never followed up, statements never taken and detectives taken off the unsolved cases.

He said he could not understand why it had taken 23 years for the disappearances - presumed murders - to be referred to a coroner.

Nor could he understand how the investigations were "shut down" and had "died" within a year of the women going missing.

Leanne Goodall, 20, Robyn Hickie, 18, and Amanda Robinson, 14, disappeared between December 1978 and April 1979 while waiting for or getting off buses at bus stops on the Pacific Highway in Newcastle. In the case of Ms Goodall, a formal investigation was never launched.

At the inquest yesterday, Mr Abernethy asked Norm Sheather, who was in charge of Newcastle district detectives at the time, why the Goodall disappearance was never looked at by a detective.

"I don't know. It should have been," said Mr Sheather, now retired.

Mr Sheather also could not give a reason why further lines of inquiry were never followed up in relation to Amanda Robinson and Ms Hickie and why the investigations had "died" by the end of 1979.

In a dramatic outburst, Mr Abernethy said detectives should have analysed the cases after two years and, given they were unsolved and resources had been withdrawn, referred them to a coroner.

Mr Abernethy: "Could I suggest that no-one, you nor anybody else, did that analysis and these cases just slipped through the cracks?"

Mr Sheather: "Well, that's the way it appears."

Mr Abernethy: "What I want to ascertain is whether these cases are just because of the system or the leadership of criminal investigations in those days. Nothing was done to finish them off, one way or the other."

Mr Sheather said his position was "virtually administration," and it was the responsibility of the then divisional officer, Mervyn Squires, who supervised the detectives.

Mr Abernethy said he found it "incredibly difficult" to accept that as head of Newcastle region detectives Mr Sheather was not responsible for overseeing the investigation.

Mr Abernethy: "You are suggesting on oath the buck stopped with Sergeant Squires?"

Mr Sheather later conceded he was responsible for ensuring the integrity of the investigation and the allocation of resources, and it was up to him or Sergeant Squires to refer the matters to the coroner.

He did not know why two detectives who were sent from Sydney to investigate the Amanda Robinson abduction were recalled after just two weeks.

The inquest continues.

Ivan Milat a prime suspect again

By Les Kennedy - SMH
May 22, 2006

IVAN MILAT is expected to be named today as a prime suspect in the disappearance 26 years ago of two Sydney nurses - the third time since his 1996 conviction for the murders of seven backpackers that he has featured as a "person of interest" at a coroner's inquest.

A deputy state coroner, Carl Milovanovich, will hear police evidence about the women, Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balken, last seen at a Parramatta hotel in 1980.

Milat was previously named at inquests into the disappearance of young women and couples from the North Shore and the Hunter dating back to the late 1970s. Unlike on those occasions, Milat, 60, will not be given a day out of Goulburn's high-security Supermax prison to give evidence.

The parents and other relatives of the two nurses are expected to attend the day-long hearing at the Westmead Coroner's Court. Detectives are expected to detail for the first time undisclosed information on police efforts to find the women, who were both 20 when they disappeared.

In 2001 Milat angrily denied at an inquest at Toronto Local Court that he was responsible for the disappearances of Robyn Hickie, 17, Amanda Robinson, 14, and Leanne Goodall, 20, all from Newcastle, who vanished separately in the Hunter in 1978 and 1979.

In August he was named by police at an inquest before Mr Milovanovich as the person most likely to have killed the Berowra schoolgirl Michelle Pope, 18, and her boyfriend, Stephen Lapthorne, 21, who vanished along with their green van from northern Sydney in August 1978. Neither the vehicle nor their bodies have been found.

For the past three years a team of Parramatta detectives has re-examined the disappearances of Ms Balken and Ms Jamieson. They were last seen with a man wearing a floppy black cowboy hat in a back bar of the Tollgate Hotel in Church Street, Parramatta, at 7.30pm on June 12, 1980.

Detectives interviewed Milat a year ago inside the Supermax prison, where he is serving a life sentence for the abduction, stabbing and shooting murders of five women and two men in the Belanglo State Forest in the Southern Highlands between 1978 and 1992.

Milat, who was working in 1980 at the Granville depot of the then Department of Main Roads, is understood to have been interviewed about his movements and vehicles he owned, including a lime green Valiant Charger sedan.

As in previous investigations into other missing women or couples in which Milat has featured since 2001, police have been frustrated by the fact that no bodies have been found.

 

Search for remains of missing girls continues

Tuesday, February  26, 2002 . Posted: 09:14:27 (AEDT) - ABC

Excavation works of an area in Lake Macquarie will continue today as part of a search for the possible remains of three Newcastle girls who went missing in the late 1970s.

Detectives attached to Strike Force Fenwick, which is investigating the disappearances of Amanda Robinson, Robyn Hickey and Leanne Goodall, are working on excavating two sealed wells in the Belmont-Swansea area.

Officers are yet to report any significant findings, and police spokesman Norris Smith says the search could take some time.

"The search is being conducted as a result of fresh information which was provided to coronial proceedings," he said.

"It's expected the search will take the majority of this week, with Hunter region police and local council employees involved."

Decades of suspended grief for loved ones

THE similarities should have astounded investigators.All lived in the Eastlakes area, all were young and attractive and all went missing within four months of each other, snatched at night while alone.Vanished into thin air.But it took decades before the disappearances of Leanne Goodall, Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson were taken seriously as abduction and murders, let alone whether they could even be linked.Today marks the 30th anniversary of Amanda Robinson's disappearance, the last of the three missing girls cases that have become to represent all that is evil about the Hunter Region.The 14-year-old was last seen about 400 metres from her home in Lake Road, Swansea on April 21, 1979.She had been to a school dance at Gateshead with friends.Her disappearance came 13 days after Robyn Hickie, 18, went missing after being last seen on the Pacific Highway at Belmont.Several months earlier, on December 30, 1978, Leanne Goodall, 20, was last seen alive at the Star Hotel after earlier being dropped off at Muswellbrook by her brother to catch a train.The three women had never met, but their stories would become intertwined as a crack police unit, Strike Force Fenwick, was set up in the late 1990s.Their families have also become close.The mothers of Amanda and Leanne, Anne Robinson and Beth Leen, have stood side-by-side many times pleading with the public to help find their children.They find some solace in the fact that each knows how the other is feeling.But 30 years down the track, the lack of answers still haunts them.They cannot grieve at a gravesite.Their hearts still skip a beat every time there are reports of remains being found.'We still celebrate her birthday, we all get together," Mrs Leen said."You think of it all year but that is a day when we all get together."And when a body turns up you really think, you are sort of waiting and wondering."And they are still waiting and wondering when they can find their girls and give them some sort of peace.Information can be forwarded to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

'I hope to God they get answers': Strike Force set up into missing girls

Emma Partridge SMH

The abduction and suspected murders of four girls and young women from the state's Hunter region in the 1970s and 1990s are being investigated by a new police strike force.

One of the cases was never investigated by police while two were not reported to the coroner until 20 years after their disappearance.

"I hope to God they get answers for some of us. It's hell on earth, heartache and suffering for 40 years," Anne Robinson, one of the mothers, said.

University student Leanne Goodall, 20, vanished after leaving the Star Hotel in Newcastle in December, 1978, while dental nurse Robyn Hickie, 18, was abducted on her way to meet friends at Belmont in the Lake Macquarie region.

 

Just two weeks later, Amanda Robinson, 14, was snatched at Swansea, somewhere between the Pacific Highway and Lake Road, as she was walking home from a school dance.

About 15 years later, schoolgirl Gordana Kotevski was kidnapped by two men in a white vehicle at Charlestown while walking home from a nearby mall.

Former state coroner John Abernethy presided over an inquest in 2002 into the disappearances. Backpacker murderer Ivan Milat gave evidence.

Mr Abernethy told 9News the initial police investigation was poor and that the cases "had fallen through the cracks". "These are missing teenagers, they just don't disappear into thin air," Mr Abernethy said. "The initial police investigation was perfunctory at best. It was just not a good investigation," he said.

A new strike force - named Arapaima and comprising seasoned detectives from Lake Macquarie police - is reinvestigating the suspected murders of Amanda, Robyn and Gordana.

Lake Macquarie Superintendent Danny Sullivan said four detectives, led by Detective Sergeant Krisit Faber, would be dedicated to working on the cases for the next several months.

 

"These matters struck at the core of the community in Lake Macquarie," Superintendent Sullivan said.

"That strike force will re-examine the investigation into the unsolved missing persons cases in the Lake Macquarie region," he said.

Gordana's aunt Julie Talevski still campaigns in the hope that one day her niece's killer will be caught and is hoping police will offer a reward of $1 million in the near future.

"She was just a beautiful young lady with a heart of gold, who would do anything for her family and friends," Ms Talevski said.

 

"There is happiness that yes, someone is looking at this seriously again, but then comes the pain of reopening a wound that will never heal," she said.

The cases were not properly looked at or reported to the coroner until detectives from Strike Force Fenwick took charge almost 20 years later.

"They fell between the cracks and were forgotten about until Fenwick came along and really turned them over but by then it was too late," Mr Abernethy said.

Police have urged anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 180 333 000.