Amber Haigh was allegedly last seen at Campbelltown Railway Station, Sydney where it was claimed she was dropped off on 5 June 2002. Amber was to attend Mt Druitt Hospital to visit her father, but did not arrive. She had been living in the small town of Harden NSW. There are grave fears for Amber's safety and welfare.

Reward of $100,000 to solve disappearance of Amber Haigh

Renewed appeal to locate missing woman - Campbelltown 3 August 2005

Police from Cootamundra Local Area Command have renewed their appeal to the public in trying to locate a woman who went missing at Campbelltown in 2002.

In conjunction with National Missing Persons Week, police are investigating the disappearance of Amber Michelle Haigh, who was 19-years-old when she went missing from Campbelltown Railway Station on 5 June 2002.

Ms Haigh is described as being 160cm, thin build, with brown shoulder-length hair and green/hazel eyes. She was last seen wearing a green jumper, dark tracksuit pants and joggers. She was also carrying a bag with clothes in it.

Anyone who has any information in relation to Ms Haighs location is urged to contact Young Police on 02 6382 8199 or Crime stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Monday, 2 August 2004

It is National Missing Persons Week and police are hoping to gather any clues for the families of about 9,000 people who go missing every year across NSW. There are many cases continuing to baffle police locally. Amber Haigh is described as thin, with brown hair and green-hazel eyes. Anyone with information should contact Young police.

Police fear for missing woman

Detectives at Young, in central southern NSW, have escalated their enquiries into the disappearance of a local woman. Police have been told Amber Haigh was dropped off at Campbelltown Railway Station on the night of Friday, June 5, but she has not been seen since. Detective Sergeant Gae Crea says Strike Force Villimar is now trying to locate people of interest in the Young area, around Campbelltown and around Tahmoor near Picton.

$100,000 reward for info on Amber Haigh

Police up-beat about solving Amber Haigh case

Police say they are still hopeful that a $100,000 reward will help solve a five-year-old possible homicide case in southern New South Wales despite no new local leads.

It has been more than two weeks since NSW Police Minister David Campbell announced the reward for information that could help solve the mystery of 19-year-old Amber Haigh's disappearance in 2002.

Inspector Dean Smith of Cootamundra police says there has been no local responses to the reward, but he is still hopeful.

"We haven't been overwhelmed by responses which is disappointing by our point of view, but if we can keep this investigation, or this missing person case out there, then we're hopeful that people will still contact us," he said.

From the land of fear, loss and dark secrets

Scarecrows stalk the main street, false eyes vacantly scanning this middle-of-nowhere town. They prop against power poles, signposts, almost anything in Harden that stands still long enough.

As a symbolic connection to the local spring-time show, the scarecrows are silent sentinels for the town and all within. Old-timers assure they are temporary. Something to do with the children.

An oddity, perhaps, but trivial in a country town where unanswered questions hang like dark clouds.

The story involves Janelle Goodwin, a pregnant 29-year-old who was shot in the head.

Another central character is orchard worker Robert Geeves, who admits dumping her naked body in a wheelbarrow.

Plot twists and turns bring us to teenager Amber Haigh who, like so many others, was lured to this pocket of south-west NSW by the promise of work as a fruit picker. It was her first stint away from mother Ros and their Sydney home. She made the 350-kilometre trek to stay with her great aunt at Kingsvale, a village on the fringes of Harden shire.

Amber was 17 years old but, developmentally delayed; she viewed life through the gaze of a prepubescent. Although she could manage day-to-day tasks, in her mother's words, she was vulnerable and easily led.

"I always worried for my daughter's well-being," Ros explains. "When she left, I was comforted by the fact that she was able to stay with an aunty ... I felt safer knowing that."

No one in the family feels safe any more. Not in Harden, not anywhere. Not since Amber disappeared from the shire seven years ago, leaving behind her baby son and a litany of loss.

"I feel helpless, frustrated, angry, hurt and upset because I think someone has taken my daughter away," says Ros, who asks for her surname and suburb to be withheld.

What she would give for a full night's sleep. "I am constantly thinking about Amber. Every day it goes over and over in my head.

Amber never knew Janelle Goodwin. They met their fates almost a decade apart, but they do have place and one person in common - the bed of Harden shire orchard worker Robert Geeves.

Ms Goodwin was first. At the age of 29, and pregnant to Mr Geeves, her body was discovered in a barrow beneath a tarp inside a shearing shed behind his Kingsvale farmhouse on June 21, 1993.

She was naked, tied from ankles to throat, wrapped in bed sheets with a shopping bag over her head. She had been shot through the nose at close range with a .22 rifle.

Police were called a day after the shooting. Mr Geeves confessed to putting her body in the shed. They had been drinking. They argued, then struggled. The gun went off. He panicked. He cleaned the scene.

Mr Geeves was charged with murder, pleading not guilty. A magistrate discharged him in Cootamundra Local Court due to insufficient evidence. The ruling meant the case could be prosecuted in the future.

And it was. Police reapplied the heat after Mr Geeves and wife Anne contacted police on June 19, 2002, to report that Amber Haigh - another of his live-in lovers - had vanished in the night.

The resurrected investigation led to Mr Geeves being tried in the NSW Supreme Court over Ms Goodwin's death. Prosecutors were confident: they had ballistics advice and fresh witness statements. The trial took more than three years. Mr Geeves was found not guilty of murder. The jury members agreed: it was a terrible accident.

Ms Goodwin's death was not the first time Mr Geeves, now 49, had been acquitted of serious charges.

In 1986, two 13-year-old girls from nearby Young failed to return home from school. They were missing for more than a fortnight.

When they finally resurfaced, one filed a police statement alleging she had been kept prisoner in a wheat silo and was sexually assaulted by Mr Geeves. The other teenager contradicted the claims.

Mr Geeves maintains his innocence in all matters, and The Sun-Herald does not suggest otherwise.

Driving through the scarecrow honour guard, we run head-first into another Stephen King-style moment: giant spiders have invaded the town's only motel. They are monsters, like tennis balls even in curls of death, and we're told that no one, including the local pest control man, have seen their kind before.

Admittedly, as we check in, it is tempting to chase riddles of spiders and scarecrows, but somewhere within the shire boundaries are clues to a far more sinister mystery.

"We believe something bad has happened to Amber Haigh," says local area police commander Keith Price, appealing for any assistance that may lead to a breakthrough. "Someone in this community has information that can end this once and for all."

About 3500 live in Harden shire, although the population swells considerably in this corner of the "Golden Triangle" - so called due to its favourable conditions for growing wheat - from October to December. That's when students, backpackers and other transients flock to the harvest. (A cherry grower in Young this season fielded 5000 inquiries from potential pickers.)

The town of Harden itself is a twin, joined at the hyphenated hip to bordering Murrumburrah, settled in the 1850s.

A private museum salutes the birth of the Australian Light Horse while the historical society hails glory days of gold rushes, faster trains and bumper crops. The second-hand bookshop boasts almost as many titles as the council does ratepayers. Imposing churches from three denominations offer a reminder why it could have been confused with God's country. A new medical centre and nursing home point to a forgiving future.

Beyond isolation, drought and the desperation of such a combination, there's an unhealthy mix of the unknown, unbelievable and uncertain. The community's collective expression contorts whenever someone, usually an outsider, mentions Amber Haigh or Janelle Goodwin. What once was the talk of the town is now whispered behind hands.

"We wondered when the big media would finally arrive," one businessman tells us. "We don't want our names mentioned but we want people to hear what has happened around here."

Big media will follow in droves when an inquest - to be announced tomorrow - is held next year into Amber's disappearance. They will focus on her last-known steps.

The Geeveses, described as her "carers" in early reports, told police they had dropped her at Campbelltown railway station at 8.30 one winter night, having driven about four hours from the shire.

They said Amber wanted to make a surprise visit to her critically ill father in Mount Druitt Hospital. She left her son Royce with them, farewelling the five-month-old with a kiss and a hug.

The couple went to the police when she failed to return home after a fortnight. They appealed publicly for help finding her.

"Amber, come home, Roycey needs you," Mr Geeves said at the time. "He's growing at the moment - what you miss today you don't get back tomorrow."

Police set up a strike force. They searched the ramshackle weatherboard house where she had been living with the Geeveses. They also checked abandoned mineshafts littering the 160-hectare property. Nothing was found. Even a $100,000 reward for information yielded nought.

But the extra police attention did make Harden more protective of its own, and others. Regulars at the town's Commercial Hotel tell of how patrons pulled on the machismo one evening when someone they no longer trusted tried chatting up a barmaid: "All the guys in the bar stopped what they were doing and stood to attention with their chests all puffed out."

Amber has not touched her bank accounts since she went missing. She has never contacted relatives or friends. Not her parents. Not her baby boy.

Turns out Amber had also fallen pregnant to Mr Geeves. Royce was his son, although the boy is now in the custody of Amber's relatives.

We approached the Geeveses at their property on what would have been her 27th birthday. Amber, if she was around, would have wanted to blow out the candles on her favourite cake: sponge with jam and icing.

At least that's the sort of cake her aunt used to make before the girl struck up a relationship with the older couple down the road.

Mr Geeves acknowledged the mystery of Amber's disappearance still had an effect on him. "Of course it does, but I have nothing to say." His wife Anne added: "We'd love to know what happened."

So too would her long-suffering family, the authorities and the good folk of Harden who, like the name suggests, are a resilient lot.

Younger sister Melissa thinks about her every day. "I miss and love her so much. She will be in my heart forever ... I was a cheeky kid but Amber would always say: 'Melissa,

Everyone is steeling themselves for this inquest. The proceedings promise rage and resentment. Fingers crossed, relief too.

Mr Geeves and his wife will take legal advice before deciding to give evidence.

While they are deciding, Harden locals recommend we chat to a youngish lady in town about him. She tells us: "He's a good man ... what's it got to do with you?"

Amber's mother hopes for justice. She wants to make sure another young life is not wasted: "We do not want to see another family grieve a loss such as ours."

Inquest to be held into Haigh case

An inquest into the disappearance of a woman who was living near Young, in south-west New South Wales, is to be held almost eight years after she vanished.

Nineteen-year-old mother Amber Michelle Haigh was last seen in June 2002 at Sydney's Campbelltown railway station.

Two weeks later she was reported missing by a couple she had been living with on a farm at Kingsvale, between Young and Harden.

Despite an eight-year investigation and a $100,000 reward for information, police have few leads.

An inquest into Ms Haigh's disappearance and possible murder will be held on March 5 in the Glebe Coroners Court in Sydney.

Police still investigating Haigh disappearance

Police say they have not given up solving the disappearance of Amber Haigh, 19, from the Young district.

Ms Haigh's son, five months old at the time of her disappearance, has been cared for by relatives since June 2002 when his mother was last seen at the Campbelltown railway station.

The case was mentioned in the Glebe Coroner's Court on Friday and was adjourned for another mention late next month.

Inspector Dave Cockram from the Cootamundra local area command says the inquest into the Kingsvale woman's disappearance is not expected in the short-term.

"I don't think so, even after this extended period of time we receive information and we're acting on that," Inspector Cockram said.

"We still have to make certain our inquiries are finalised before the matter ends up in the coroner's court."

Inspector Cockram says a big reward is still in place for information that finds Ms Haigh.

"The Police Minister back in 2007 issued a $100,000 reward for anyone that can provide information to the police that leads to the conviction of the person that was responsible for Amber's disappearance," he said.

"So I can only reinforce that. Please, if anyone has any information in relation to this matter, please give me a call."

Date set for Amber Haigh inquest

An inquest into the disappearance of a Young district teenager is scheduled to start almost nine years to the day after she was reported missing.

Amber Michelle Haigh, 19, from Kingsvale, had been staying with a couple in Sydney who reported her disappearance on June 19, 2002.

An inquest has been set down for five days at Parramatta starting on June 20 next year before deputy state coroner Scott Mitchell.

Local police have said they have provided details of Ms Haigh's missing person case to Strikeforce Hixson which is investigating the discovery of bones in the Belanglo State Forest.

Police hope inquest will further Amber Haigh case

A 9000 page brief will be presented to a coroner to next week to investigate the disappearance of a Kingsvale woman.

At least one officer from the Cootamundra Local Area Command has been attached to the missing person case, since 19 year old Amber Haigh was last reported seen at the Cambelltown Train Station in Sydney in 2002.

The Command's Crime Co-Ordinator David Cockram will attend the five day hearing at the Parramatta Coroner's Court next week.

He said the brief of evidence collected over the last eight years is substantial.

"We had an 18 volume brief of evidence before the state coroner a couple of years ago before this inquest.

There's hope fresh evidence about the disappearance of Amber Haigh, could result in the case being directed to the DPP.

Sargeant Cockram said the witness list is yet to be finalised, but will include the father of Ms Haigh's son, Robert Geeves.

"We're hoping that we could perhaps raise further evidence or information into what happened to Amber, as opposed to what's literally contained in the brief," he said.

"Secondary to that, there's an opportunity if the corner believes that a person known to the inquiry has had something to do with the disappearance of Amber, that he can refer the matter to the DPP for analysis of the brief."

THE body of 19-year-old Amber Haigh was buried under a lemon tree somewhere in Kingsvale in southern NSW after she was murdered by her 40-year-old lover in June 2002, an inquest has heard.

Cindy Brown yesterday told Parramatta Local Court her nephew, Joel McCorkindale, had told her of rumours that Robert Geeves disposed of the woman's body only six months after she gave birth to his child.

Ms Brown also told the court Haigh confided in her and said she was "scared" of Mr Geeves in the months before her disappearance after he "tied her up with handcuffs and filmed himself having sex with her".

Mr Geeves lived with the teenager, who was intellectually impaired, and his wife, Anne, who approved of the union, in a farmhouse near Young, a small town in southern NSW.

Mr and Mrs Geeves reported Haigh missing on June 19, 2002, saying they had dropped her off at Campbelltown railway station in Sydney's southwest earlier that month. She has not been seen since.

It is the belief of the Haigh family and the police that the Geeveses used Haigh as a surrogate mother.

Paul Harding, who was Haigh's third cousin and ex-lover, told the court Mr Geeves "often had sex" with Haigh, and made a recording of it before watching the footage with his wife.

Mr Harding also said the conditions his cousin lived in on the farm were appalling and the Geeveses treated her badly.

"They wouldn't let her out of the house," Mr Harding said.

"She said that he had video cameras on her. When they finished, him and Anne used to watch the video."

Mr Harding said he had also impregnated Haigh but the pregnancy had been terminated.

His mother, Jacqueline Cash, earlier told the court that Haigh was scared of Mr Geeves and

his wife. "They were very nasty to her; she was very scared of them," said Ms Cash, who added that Haigh had told her she thought the couple would hurt her.

Haigh's uncle, Michael Haigh, told the court she always "had a cheeky smile on her face", and was a "caring, loving little girl turning into a nice young lady".

The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell continues this week.

On Monday, the court was told Mr Geeves had been acquitted of the murder of another girlfriend.

Additional reporting: AAP

Missing woman 'feared baby's father'

June 22, 2011 - SMH

A TEENAGER was scared of the married man who fathered her baby, an inquest into her presumed death has heard.

Born with a mild intellectual disability, Amber Haigh became a ward of the state at 12, when her mother abandoned her.

Her father was a volatile alcoholic who had served time in jail.

The Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell was told Ms Haigh formed a troubled relationship with Robert Geeves, an older married man, while living in the southern NSW town of Young.

She gave birth to a baby boy in January 2002, when she was 19, and vanished five months later.

''She did say she was a bit scared of Robert and didn't want to have a baby with him,'' Ms Haigh's third cousin, Paul Harding, told the inquest at Parramatta Local Court yesterday.

Mr Harding said Mr Geeves's wife, Anne, knew about the relationship and was unable to have any more children. ''She wanted the baby and they wanted to get rid of the mum. Amber actually told me that,'' Mr Harding said.

''Amber told me Anne couldn't have any more babies.''

He also described the way in which Mr Geeves videotaped himself having sex with Ms Haigh, before showing his wife.

''They wouldn't let her out of the house,'' Mr Harding said.

''She said that he had video cameras on her. When they finished, him and Anne used to watch the video. She told me a couple of weeks after the baby was born.'' The inquest also heard Amber became pregnant at age 17 while in a relationship with Mr Harding but it was terminated.

His girlfriend, Cindy Brown, who lived in the same block of flats as Ms Haigh, said her nephew, Joel McCorkindale, had told her about rumours Mr Geeves had killed Ms Haigh and buried her under a lemon tree at Kingsvale in southern NSW.

Another resident in the unit complex, Leon Henry, said Mr Geeves often tied Ms Haigh's hands together during sex.

''Amber came and said she didn't want anything to do with Robert,'' he said. ''She was going to … get her locks changed.''

Mr and Mrs Geeves reported Ms Haigh missing on June 19, 2002, saying they had dropped her off at Campbelltown railway station earlier that month.

The hearing continues today.

AAP

Amber not buried in vineyard, inquest told

Malcolm Brown - SMH

June 23, 2011

A man who gave evidence on the disappearance of teenager Amber Haigh in southern NSW nine years ago agreed today to take police to a vineyard where it has been reported that she might be buried.

The inquest, being conducted by Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell at Parramatta Coroners Court, heard evidence that there had been a lot of talk about the disappearance of Ms Haigh on June 5, 2002, including a story that she had been pack raped and killed and that her body had been buried in a vineyard at Anville.

Adam Blundell, an apiarist, agreed in evidence today that he had been involved in drunken discussion about the disappearance and that he had once given a description on how to get to a particular vineyard.

He said he had once worked at the vineyard and that Robert Geeves, who had fathered Ms Haigh's child prior to her disappearance, had also worked at the vineyard.

Peter Hamill SC, counsel assisting the coroner, asked Mr Blundell whether he believed that Ms Haigh was buried at the vineyard.

Mr Blundell said: "No."

Ms Haigh, who was 19 when she disappeared, had lived with Mr Geeves and his wife Anne.

According to Mr Geeves, he and his wife had dropped the girl off at Campbelltown Station the day she disappeared to visit her sick father.

Ms Haigh has not been seen since.

Mr Blundell said today he was only joking when he used words attributed to him that the girl's body had been put through a shredding machine.

He said that Mr Geeves had used a blood and bone mixer and he also said that Mr Geeves had also borrowed his trailer from time to time.

But he denied that he had said in conversation that a video had been made of the girl being pack raped and he had said: "We got the bitch, banged her on the head with a brick."

David John Williams, known as "Sheepdog", agreed that he had been part of drunken conversation and that he had said that Amber Haigh's body had been "in the grapevines" but he said at the time that he had been both "drunk and stoned".

He denied saying anything in another conversation about "gangbang" and torture of Ms Haigh or about her having been hit with a brick and having her throat cut.

The inquiry continues.

Social workers tell of fear for pregnant teen

Malcolm Brown - SMH

June 23, 2011

SOCIAL and community health workers who dealt with teenager Amber Haigh in the months before her disappearance had become worried about her relationship with Robert Geeves, 22 years older than her, who had made her pregnant, Parramatta Coroners Court heard yesterday.

Mr Geeves had appeared to be caring for her at all times he was seen with her, driving her to appointments with community health workers, paying the bond for her flat, managing her bank account and getting things for the baby, born on January 21, 2002.

Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell, who had heard hearsay evidence that she had been tied up and raped by Mr Geeves while his wife, Anne, videoed it, said he was yet to hear actual evidence that there were safety issues.

According to yesterday's evidence, Ms Haigh had a flat in Young, in southern NSW, but Mr Geeves used a spare key to get in and take the baby's bassinet.

Social workers had responded by getting Ms Haigh another bassinet and changing the locks.

A virtual battle had developed between Mr Geeves and some of the social and health workers and, on one occasion, he had complained about Susan Powell, a clinical nurse specialist in Child and Community Health at Young Hospital, and her involvement in the case.

Ms Powell said her superior had told her to ''back off''.

Ms Powell said she had become concerned because MsHaigh, who had the mind of a child, was being manipulated by Mr Geeves into letting them have the baby. Ms Haigh had said the couple had wanted ''custody'' of the child but Ms Haigh had not known what the word meant.

''I had a fear that she would sign some papers and not understand what she was signing,'' Ms Powell said.

Ms Haigh, 19, disappeared on June 6, 2002. According to Mr and Mrs Geeves, they took her that day to Campbelltown station, without her baby, to travel to Mt Druitt to visit her seriously ill father, Geoffrey. Ms Haigh has never been seen again.

Katrina Richens, a social worker with the Young Community Health Centre, said yesterday that Ms Haigh had told her that she wanted Mr Geeves to be a part of the baby's life but did not have a good relationship with him. On the other hand, Ms Haigh had thought it would be good to have the father involved.

Jacqueline Anne Thompson, a Department of Family and Community Services case worker, was concerned that the Geeves' home in Kingsvale, near Young, was very isolated and that it was an ''atypical'' situation to have the child's father, the girl herself and the wife living together.

The inquest resumes today.

'Heartless bastards': Amber's family still looking for answers

June 24, 2011 - SMH

The family of a teenage woman who has been missing for nine years hopes the people responsible for her disappearance are able to sleep at night, describing them as "heartless bastards" for what they did.

An inquest into the presumed death of Amber Haigh has been adjourned until July 7.

Ms Haigh, from Young in southern NSW, was 19 when she was last seen in June 2002.

In a statement read to the inquest at Parramatta Local Court in Sydney, Ms Haigh's mother, Rosalind Wright, said the family had spent nine years yearning for answers.

"We have stumbled around now for nine years and the heartache and helplessness we feel is unfathomable," it said.

Ms Wright said her daughter, who had a young son, would not have chosen to disappear without her baby boy.

"Amber was a gentle girl who cared and loved everybody, especially her son ... whom she lived for and loved no end.

"We love and miss our beautiful Amber."

Ms Wright lamented the fact that she would not have the chance to tell things to Amber, and said she had prayed for some sort of sighting or for someone to come forward with information.

"Whoever had a hand in Amber's disappearance, I hope that you can sleep at night and I know when your judgment day comes - and it will - we hope you that you are judged for the heartless bastards that you are.

"Amend yourself and do the humane thing and tell us where our Amber is.

"We will never stop thinking of you, Amber."

Robert Geeves, who had custody of Amber and had made her pregnant, told police he left her at Campbelltown railway station on June 5 2002.

Mr Geeves reported Amber missing on June 19 that year.

The inquest, conducted by Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell, will sit again at Young, in southern NSW, on July 7 and 8 to hear evidence from Mr Geeves and his wife Anne.

Mr Geeves has attended each day of the inquest this week.

Mrs Geeves is reported to have chronic renal failure requiring dialysis several times a day and is unable to travel.

According to evidence before Mr Mitchell, Mrs Geeves, who had one son and had lost a daughter, Emma, at birth, had desperately wanted another child and might have been motivated to use Amber as a "surrogate mother" to get the child she wanted.

AAP and Malcolm Brown - SMH

Son feared father's violence, court told

Malcolm Brown - SMH

June 24, 2011

A MAN who made a teenage girl pregnant became so furious when his son refused to accept the newborn baby that he screamed abuse and threw a chair through his son's window, causing the younger man to take out an apprehended violence order against his father, the Parramatta Coroner's Court heard yesterday.

Robert ''Robbie'' Geeves, a truck driver, said he had not approved of his father getting the girl, Amber Haigh, 18, pregnant. He had refused to accept the baby as his brother or hold the baby, driving both his father, Robert Geeves, and his mother, Anne, into a fury.

Mr Geeves said in 2001 he had been living with his parents at Kingsvale, near Young in southern NSW, with his girlfriend, Natasha Cross.

When Ms Haigh had come to live with them, he and Natasha had moved into a rented house in Young. He had later seen Ms Haigh was pregnant. In January 2002, when the baby was born, he had not wanted to see it.

His mother had told him the baby was ''your dad's and Amber's''. Mr Geeves said he did not think his father would have been stupid enough to do that.

''I thought it was all wrong. I did not want anything to do with the baby,'' he said.

The Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell is inquiring into the disappearance of Ms Haigh, who was last seen on June 5, 2002. Robert and Anne Geeves told police they took Ms Haigh to Campbelltown station to go to visit her sick father at Mount Druitt.

Mr Geeves said when he was growing up his father had said some ''odd'' things to him, such as putting bodies into barrels of concrete and covering one's tracks after committing a crime. His father had spoken about a river near Jugiong whose banks made it easy to roll things into the water.

In February 2002, after the baby was born, Mr Geeves had rung his mother to tell her to ''leave me alone for a while'' and she had ''carried on like crazy'' and said ''don't do this to me''.

Natasha Geeves (formerly Ms Cross) said when Robert and Anne Geeves visited their home, Anne Geeves had tried to get them to hold the baby and had said: ''Have you heard of a surrogate mum?''

When the parents' entreaties were rejected, Robert Geeves had thrown a bench chair through a window and said he would kill her parents, Mr Geeves told the inquest.

The hearing resumes today.

The sad, short life of a mother who would never grow up

June 25, 2011 - SMH

Long before she disappeared, Amber Haigh was a victim of people who took advantage of her innocence, writes Malcolm Brown.

Amber Michelle Haigh, born on November 18, 1982, was destined for a hard life. She was to be intellectually retarded. Her relationship with her mother, Rosalind, would be difficult, and her father, Geoffrey, would be either in jail or drinking "24/7". Amber drifted between relatives, near Young in southern NSW, Lismore in the north and Mt Isa in Queensland.

An uncle, Michael Haigh, who gave evidence this week at an inquest in Parramatta Coroner's Court into her disappearance and presumed death nine years ago, said he was never much help. ''I was incarcerated a fair bit and I was hardly around,'' he said.

The evidence before Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell presented a tragic snapshot of isolated rural communities and areas of social need and crime.

Amber, who went to the Young district at the age of 14 to pick cherries, was never to develop intellectually beyond the level of a 13-year-old. She was happy enough, attractive, but lacked skills to handle herself.

Taken in by a great-aunt Stella, she became pregnant to Stella's adult grandson. The pregnancy was terminated because of the risks of inbreeding. At the age of 18, Amber took up with a couple, Robert and Anne Geeves, in a property called Huntley, in Kingsvale, an isolated rural pocket.

Robert Geeves had a worrying track record. Though married, he had had a girlfriend, Janelle Patricia Goodwin, for a time in 1993. The two had had a fight, a firearm was produced and Janelle was shot dead. Robert Geeves was charged with murder and acquitted.

He had also been acquitted of kidnapping two girls, aged 14 and 15, and sexually assaulting them.

Geeves and Anne had had a son, Robbie. They then had another child but the baby, Emma, died at birth.

Anne wanted more children but could not conceive.

According to remarks attributed to Anne Geeves, the couple saw a chance to use Amber as a surrogate mother.

Robert, aged 40, made her pregnant. He looked after her and handled her money, but there were reports that Amber had told people she had been tied up and raped at least once by Robert while Anne videotaped it. Police, when they searched the property, found no videotapes.

On January 21, 2002, Amber gave birth to a boy at Young Hospital. According to evidence, Amber said she wanted to keep the baby and she feared it would be taken by the Geeves.

Robbie told the inquest that the relationship between Robert Geeves and Amber disgusted him and that he refused point blank to accept the baby as his "brother".

The situation was complex. Robert Geeves assisted Amber with parenting, looked after her finances and paid the bond for her flat in Young. But he picked her up there from time to time and sometimes stayed the night.

Social and community health workers, at all times competent and caring, could never get enough evidence that Amber was being ill-treated by the Geeves, though Amber's own attitude towards the Geeves was ambivalent.

Then Amber disappeared.

The Geeves told police that on June 5, 2002, they had taken her to the railway station at Campbelltown, where she could get a train to Mt Druitt to see her seriously ill father, Geoffrey. A withdrawal was made from Amber's bank account at Campbelltown at 8.45 that night, but that was not conclusive that she had operated the account. Robert Geeves had her keycard.

Amber was apparently never seen again.

The Geeves, initially having custody of her baby, reported Amber missing on June 19. As to what happened to Amber, attention focused on Robert Geeves.

As usual with such mysteries, there were apparent ''sightings''. The inquest has also heard evidence from several men known to have said things, usually while drunk, about what happened to Amber: that she was kidnapped by a group a bikies, that she was hit with a brick and had her throat cut, that she was put through a shredding machine, that she was buried in a vineyard. In the witness box, they all dismissed it as drunken babble.

Police are now going to search a vineyard mentioned in evidence.

The inquest is due to resume in Young on July 7.

Teen offered to have baby for guardian, inquest hears

Robert Samuel Geeves and his wife Anne Margaret Geeves, both 51, refused to give evidence at an inquest into Ms Haigh's death at Young Court House, in the state's southwest.

Prior to delivering his findings today, Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell lifted a statutory prohibition order, which prevented the media from reporting on the couple's refusal to give evidence.

The couple had exercised their right to remain silent on the basis that their evidence could incriminate them, and they told the court they did not care if the media reported this fact.

Mr Mitchell said it was in the public interest to allow the media to report this as there was no immediate prospect of a trial and strong community interest in the inquest, so to leave the matter unanswered would erode public confidence in the system and leave the community at a disadvantage.

Mr Mitchell found that Ms Haigh, 19, died as a result of homicide on or about June 5, 2002, when the Geeveses claim they dropped her at Campbelltown railway station in Sydney's southwest.

Five months earlier Ms Haigh had given birth to Mr Geeves's baby and police believe the couple wanted to get rid of the teenager so they could raise the child as their own.

There were many riddles in the case that remained unanswered, Mr Mitchell said.

The first of those questions was why the Geeveses spent the night at a motel in Tahmoor on July 12, 2002.

Tahmoor is not on a route which one would normally take when traveling between Young/Harden and Sydney, Mr Mitchell said.

It is on the edge of a rugged and mountainous state forest and there are abandoned mines shafts in the area an plenty of opportunities for the concealment of a body.

Adding suspicion to this trip were conversations between the Geeveses, which were recorded on covert listening devices installed by police in their home and cars, in which they learn that detectives knew about their Tahmoor trip.

''What are we going to say our trip to Tahmoor was?'', Ms Geeves asks her husband.

Later she says: ''I dont care if they got Tahmoor anyway, cause we've got an explanation for that, if they don't like it tough, they can't stop us going places.''

Mr Mitchell acknowledged there still wasn't enough evidence to refer the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions and instead referred it to the Unsolved Homicide Squad.

Outside court, Ms Haigh's mother, Rosiland Wright, said she was upset the Geeveses' refused to give evidence and said she just wanted to know where her daughter's body was.

'Murder or misadventure': Amber Haigh inquest

A coroner has found that missing teenager Amber Haigh probably died from murder or misadventure, soon after she disappeared nine years ago.

An inquest into the 19-year-old's disappearance ended this morning at Young, in the south-west of New South Wales.

Coroner Scott Mitchell found the young mother is dead and probably died soon after she was last seen in June 2002.

She had been living with Robert and Anne Geeves on their farm at Kingsvale, near Young.

The couple reported Ms Haigh missing in 2002, telling police they had dropped her off at Sydney's Campbelltown Railway Station.

In court this morning, the couple left immediately after the findings were handed down.

In his findings the coroner has described a disturbing and sometimes forceful sexual relationship between Ms Haigh and Robert Geeves.

Yesterday his wife denied a surrogacy pact had been made between the pair and Ms Haigh.

The coroner has recommended the case be referred to the unsolved homicide squad.

Speaking outside court, Sergeant Dave Cockram says he would like someone to be charged.

"The people that have done something to Amber, they need to look over both shoulders each time they leave the house, because the matter won't sit," Sergeant Cockram said.

‘I knew there was some involvement’: Son speaks out on father’s dark past 15 years after girlfriend disappears

Police are no closer to knowing what happened to Amber Haigh

Hope for missing Amber Haigh lies in $100,000 reward

NATIONAL MISSING PERSONS WEEK 2020

There’s no two ways about it, the mystery of the disappearance of Amber Haigh – who, for a time, lived at Kingsvale, near Young – is as baffling as it is just plain sorrowful.

What remains of 18 years of investigation into her case now lies in cold-case files somewhere within the archives of NSW Police. The only hope of the case being reopened is a glint of memory, a new technology, a new clue or, sadly, the discovery of her body.

Every year, Rosalind returns to Young for the anniversary of Amber’s disappearance. Or Amber’s birthday. She’d visit with the same people: Gae Crea, Keith Price, Dave Cockram, and, more recently, me, as managing editor of local paper, The Young Witness.

Gae, Keith and Dave were all police officers in Young and both worked exhaustively on Amber’s case, under Strike Force Villimar. As years crept by, investigations and searches continued, leading to a 2011 inquest, a 60 Minutes report and endless other media reports. Still nothing.

One year I spoke to Gae – a long conversation at the car dealership where he was then working – and there were still, for him, vivid memories and so many unanswered questions.

All of which led to the 2011 coronial finding that 19-year-old Amber probably died from murder or misadventure soon after she disappeared in June 2002.

Amber had a disability and the mental age of a 10-year-old when she arrived in Young from Sydney to pick fruit.

It was a situation Rosalind wasn’t particularly comfortable with, but Amber’s life had been transient as she moved from family to family within NSW and Queensland.

The stone-fruit growing settlement, which sits between Harden and Young, was familiar to Amber and would offer months of work beyond the district’s peak cherry picking season.

But perhaps because of her proximity, age, her timidity and her intellectual disability, Amber eventually fell into a relationship with a neighbouring family, moving in with Robert Geeves and his wife, Anne.

Within a few months, Amber was pregnant and gave birth to son, Royce, in January 2002. DNA tests established that Royce was the son of 42-year-old Robert.

The Geeves told police that on 5 June, 2002, they’d driven the teen to Campbelltown railway station – a three-hour drive from Kingsvale – where she could get a train to Mt Druitt to see her seriously ill father, Geoffrey. They said she was dropped at the station at 8.30 pm.

A withdrawal was made from Amber’s bank account at Campbelltown at 8.45pm that same night, but it was not conclusive that she had operated the account. Robert had her keycard.

Among his findings, the coroner described a disturbing and sometimes forceful sexual relationship between Amber and Robert, whose wife denied a surrogacy pact had been made between the married couple and the teenager.

It was the coroner who recommended the case be referred to the unsolved homicide squad.

“The people who have done something to Amber, they need to look over both shoulders each time they leave the house, because the matter won’t sit,” he said.

A $100,000 reward remains on offer to solve the mysterious disappearance and suspected death of Amber.

Rosalind hopes the reward will prompt someone to come forward with new information.

Quietly spoken and amiable, what lies beneath her is an unease and wretchedness of not knowing what happened to her daughter. For years, Rosalind sought solace through the only people who tenuously connected her with Amber.

Her visits to Young continued even though the investigating officers moved elsewhere. She would still call them. Nowadays, her calls go to the cold-case team.

Her last text message to me as I wound up my stint at The Young Witness, in 2015, read: “Thank you for your support. If you see Gae, can you let him know I thank and appreciate everything he has done to find Amber, and I hope to have a cuppa one day. I texted him, but got a reply back: ‘wrong number’. Thank you.”

At the time of her disappearance, Amber Haigh was described as being 160cm tall, thin build with brown shoulder-length hair and green-hazel eyes. She was last seen wearing a green jumper, dark tracksuit pants and joggers. She was also carrying a bag with clothes in it.

Anyone who has information in relation to Amber is urged to contact Young Police on 02 6382 8199 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The reward for information about the disappearance of a young mother nearly two decades ago has been increased tenfold to $1 million, as her family issue an emotional plea to be able to lay the “kind, warm, loving” woman to rest.

Amber Haigh, 19, was last seen at Campbelltown train station on Wednesday, June 5, 2002.

Couple charged with murder 20 years after young mum Amber Haigh vanished

A married couple has been charged with murdering young mother Amber Haigh, who disappeared from regional New South Wales 20 years ago and whose body has never been found.

The couple, Robert Samuel Geeves and Anne Margaret Geeves, both aged 61, were arrested at a property at Harden, in Central West NSW, this morning.

This afternoon they were both charged with the murder of 19-year-old Ms Haigh who, along with her six-month-old son, had been living with the couple at their home in Kingsvale, near Young, when she disappeared in June 2002.

Robert Geeves is also facing an additional charge of aggravated sexual assault of a victim with a serious intellectual disability.

The couple reported Ms Haigh as missing on June 19, 2002, after she failed to return from a supposed trip to Sydney.

At the time, the couple told police they dropped off Ms Haigh at Campbelltown train station in Sydney earlier that month.

A 2011 inquest found Ms Haigh likely died by murder or misadventure soon after she was last seen.

Speaking to the media earlier today, Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said inquiries were "still going on at the police station".

"Forensic testing is going to take place and they will be expected to be charged with murder today and bail refused," he said.

"Police will allege in the facts Amber met her demise in the Harden-Young area and never made it to Sydney.

Reward increased to $1m last week

Last week the reward for information about Ms Haigh's disappearance was increased from $100,000 to $1 million.

"She obviously held hope out that one day she'd have some answers," Detective Superintendent Doherty said.

'She would have never left her son'

In a video released by NSW Police last week, a visibly distraught Ms Wright described her daughter as a warm and happy person.

"Amber loved her son and I know in my heart she would have never left her son," Ms Wright said.

"I feel like I've lost part of myself when Amber went missing, not knowing where she is or what happened to her."

In the same video, Ms Haigh's sister, Melissa Millar-Hodder, said she also felt incomplete not knowing what had happened.

"Her son never got to grow up with a caring, loving mum," Ms Millar-Hodder said.

Police said they seized a car at Thurgoona, near Albury on the NSW-Victoria border, last week.

'Shock-waves' after loss

Chris Manchester was the mayor of the former Harden Shire Council when police first began investigating Ms Haigh's disappearance.

"You've only got to turn on the news every morning and something drastic is happening around Sydney and Melbourne, but the feeling in the community doesn't extend as great as what it does in a rural community, where people know them more personally."

Amber Michelle HAIGH
DOB:	1982
HAIR:	Brown	BUILD:	Thin	EYES:	Green/hazel
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Hope for missing Amber Haigh lies in $100,000 reward

NATIONAL MISSING PERSONS WEEK 2020

By Mary Ward SMH

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