Above - an age-enhanced photo of what Kay may look like today
Above - the letter
Kay sent home to her parents after her disappearance postmarked
Darlinghurst
DOB:
1963 - 15 years when missing
HAIR:
Red
BUILD:
Medium
EYES:
Hazel
CIRCUMSTANCES:
15 year old Kay Docherty left her home
in Martin Street, Warilla, NSW
on 27 July 1979. She went to the home of Toni Cavanagh (also
missing).
Both girls were seen at a
bus stop opposite Warilla Grove shopping centre in the early evening.
A
letter was received by parents post marked Darlinghurst on 1 August
1979. The girls have not been seen since.
Reported missing to: Warilla
Police Station.
Reward of $100,000 offered to solve double disappearance and suspected murder
Minister for Police Michael Daley today announced that a $100,000 NSW
Government reward would be offered to help Police solve the disappearance
and presumed murders of Kay Docherty and Toni Cavanagh.
Mr Daley said Kay, 16, and Toni, 15, went missing from Warilla, a southern
coastal suburb of Wollongong, three decades ago.
"On the 27th July 1979, Kay told her parents she was staying at Toni's house
and Toni told her family they were going to the movies with Kay's Aunt and
Uncle," he said.
"It's believed the girls were on their way to the Wollongong CBD to attend a
disco, but it's not known whether they ever made it.
"Both girls were reported missing to the Lake Illawarra Local Area Command
on Sunday 29th July.
"The following week, Toni and Kay's families received separate letters from
the pair posted from the Kings Cross area, saying they were staying with
friends and would be home soon.
"There have been no confirmed sightings of the girls since they were seen at
the bus stop at dusk on the evening of Friday 27th, although there was an
unconfirmed sighting in Queensland in 1984.
"Strike Force Mundawari has been formed to investigate the pair's
disappearance and detectives are interested in any information which will
lead to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Toni and Kay's
disappearance and suspected murder.
"Their families have spent the last 30 years wondering what happened to
their daughters, and they deserve closure.
"I hope that the lure of a cash reward may encourage those with information,
who may have been reluctant to come forward at the time, to help Police
bring those responsible to justice.
"It may not seem like much but if anybody has any piece of information,
however small, it could prove to be the vital link police need to find out
what happened," Mr Daley said.
Detective Chief Inspector Michael McLean said detectives have recently
travelled to South Eastern Queensland and interviewed witnesses in the
Brisbane and Gold Coast areas.
"It has become apparent through inquiries that a high percentage of those
who lived in the Illawarra and knew of the girls at the time they
disappeared, have relocated to that area," Mr McLean said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Darren Kelly said Strike Force Mundawari
detectives are grateful for the support of the NSW Government in progressing
this case.
"This reward is a great opportunity to finally discover what happened to
these young girls," he said.
Mr Daley said that any information will be treated as strictly confidential
and may be given at any time of the day or night.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Any information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Your help may give police the clue they need to close this case and
provide some comfort for the families of victims.
How to claim your reward
Contact Crime Stoppers or your local Police Station.
Identify yourself and indicate you have information about a crime
and that you wish to claim a reward.
You will then be put in contact with a police officer involved in
the investigation of that case.
The Heartache Of Just
Not Knowing
Illawarra Mercury
Saturday August 4, 2007
MICHELLE HOCTOR reports
It's a stunning statistic - 10,000 people
reported missing to NSW Police in the past year.
While many are found within a fortnight, those
that aren't leave behind families with broken
hearts and unanswered questions, as MICHELLE
HOCTOR reports.
POLICE across NSW are undertaking mass DNA
testing in the hope of finding new leads to the
state's long-term missing persons cases.
Since Kay Docherty's disappearance 28
years ago, her family have had to hang their
hopes on the slimmest of leads in the hope she
was still alive.
Now the Dochertys, of Warilla, and
hundreds of families like them have been given
new hope through mitochondrial DNA testing.
The testing is specifically designed to
link families with the remains of people who
have died, but it at least offers closure for
those who have had their lives put on hold for
as many as 60 years.
Since 2000 many relatives of 660 long-term
missing persons in NSW have had mitochondrial
DNA samples tested in the hope new leads can be
found.
NSW Missing Persons Unit Constable Joanna
Williams said under normal circumstances nuclear
DNA samples were taken because they provided a
definitive result.
"With nuclear DNA, you can get a 100 per
cent match," she said.
This testing fell down, however, when
identifying missing persons because nuclear DNA
slowly disappears from human tissue during
decomposition.
As an alternative, a mitochondrial DNA
sample was taken, which provides a connection
through the maternal line.
"It's not 100 per cent definitive, but
mitochondrial DNA can be detected in bones after
decomposition," Const Williams said.
She said these family samples were being
compared against any missing bones that had been
found over the years, and will be accessed as
new bones are found.
So far, a "handful" of cases have been
solved through the process, Const Williams said.
Mitochondrial DNA samples, taken from a
swab of saliva, are sent to the United States
for testing before being returned as a DNA
profile, a process that takes about six weeks.
Const Williams said police had been
working way their way through a list of
families, reaching Kay Docherty's 42-year-old
twin brother Kevin on May 1 this year.
As yet, there have been no matches, a
result Mr Docherty regards with mixed emotions.
Either way, the news would not be good.
If you have seen any of these people, call
1800 000 634
Brendan Crinis
Last seen: the 19-year-old was last seen
in Tarrawanna on September 10, 2002.
Pauline Sowry
Last seen: Warrawong in 1993
Grant Rodgers
Last seen: Albion Park in 1989
Saverio Ganino
Last seen: Unanderra in 1990
Toni Cavanagh
Last seen: July 27, 1979. The then
15-year-old left her Warilla home with friend
Kay Docherty in the early evening.
Kay Docherty
Last seen: July 27, 1979. The 15-year-old
left Warilla with friend Toni Cavanagh. Believed
to have hitchhiked to Wollongong.
Jaki-Lee Walsh
Last Seen: The 22-year-old was last seen
on April 14, 1989 at Kiama. Police believe she
met with foul play.
TV
revisits Warilla cold case
BY ALEX
ARNOLD
22/06/2009
10:57:00 AM
The mysterious disappearance
of two Warilla teenagers 30
years ago is due to feature on
the TV program Missing Persons
Unit tonight.
Kay Docherty and Toni
Cavanagh went missing on July
27, 1979, after reportedly
hitch-hiking to Wollongong.
The last-known sighting of
the two girls was on
Shellharbour Rd, outside Warilla
Grove Shopping Centre.
In 1996, detectives
investigating Ivan Milat and the
backpacker murders visited the
Docherty's home.
Milat reportedly worked
for a road gang in Kiama and was
known to travel along
Shellharbour Rd.
In 2006, one of the girls'
friends from Lake Illawarra High
School reported seeing Toni in
Cairns.
Sergeant John Klepczarek
of Lake Illawarra police said he
hoped someone watching tonight's
program may be able to provide
leads.
"Anyone with information
is asked to contact Lake
Illawarra detectives," he said.
Missing Persons Unit
screens tonight on WIN at
9.30pm.
Detectives appeal for public
assistance into two girls missing for 30 years - Strike Force
Mundawari
2009-07-27 05:19:28
NSW Police from Lake Illawarra Local Area Command have formed a
strike force and are appealing for public assistance to locate two
girls missing from the Wollongong area on the 30th anniversary of
their disappearance.
About 7pm on Friday 27 July 1979, Kay Docherty, aged 15, and Toni
Cavanagh, aged 16, left the Cavanagh residence in Martin Street,
Warilla. It is believed the pair intended to make their way to a
disco in the Wollongong CBD. Kay and Toni have not been seen since.
Today marks the 30th year of their disappearance. Previous public
appeals have outlined a hope that the girls had run away but
detectives no longer believe this to be the case. It is suspected
both girls had become victims of foul play.
Strike Force Mundawari has been formed to investigate the pair's
disappearance and detectives are appealing to the public for their
assistance.
Investigators are seeking any information concerning the
disappearance of the girls or any incidents that may relate both
prior to and after 27 July 1979.
Anyone with information into the whereabouts of Kay and Toni, or
details surrounding their disappearance, is urged to contact Lake
Illawarra Police on 4295 2699 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Do letters hold a clue to missing teen girls?
THIRTY years after teenagers Kay Docherty and
Toni Cavanagh went missing ten minutes from
their homes, written letters may offer insight
into what happened.
By Janet Fife-Yeomans
November 7,
2009 - 12:00AM
DailyTelegraph
TYPICAL schoolgirls sneaking away for a
Friday night disco, excited and nervous at
the same time.
A neighbour saw Kay Docherty and Toni Cavanagh
waiting at a bus stop just 10 minutes walk from
their homes. When the friends didn't return,
police wrote them off as runaway teenagers - the
girls sent letters home, postmarked
Darlinghurst, saying they were fine.
But 30 years later, a new police strike force
reinvestigating their disappearance believes the
girls may have been forced to write those
letters. Strike Force Mundawari detectives fear
that they may have been abducted and murdered.
When the parents of Kay, 15, and Toni, 16,
received the handwritten letters four days after
they went missing, the friends may have been
trying to send them a hidden message. Forensic
tests have identified the writing as that of the
two girls but there are spelling and grammar
mistakes the girls would never have made,
especially Kay who was a star student at
Illawarra High School.
Either that or they made the mistakes under
duress.
Detective Senior Constable Cath Flood, heading
the strike force, said the reinvestigation,
including updated checks of national databases,
showed no evidence they were still alive.
When the girls walked to that bus stop on
Shellharbour Rd, Warilla, near Wollongong on
July 27, 1979, there were no mobile phones, no
internet, no CCTV cameras.
That has made it all the harder for the officers
based at the Illawarra local area command as
they try to track the girls' final movements 30
years later. What they are certain of is that
someone harbours a dark secret.
"Someone must have heard something or they know
someone who was involved," investigations
manager Detective Senior Sergeant Darren Kelly
said.
Three days before the girls went missing, the
community was shocked by the Appin mine
disaster, in which 14 were killed in an
explosion of methane gas. Sgt Kelly hopes that
date will help jog memories.
Jean Docherty kept her daughter's room exactly
as she had left it for 25 years until her twin
brother Kevin, 49, cleared it out five years ago
only because they needed more space.
Kevin, unmarried, lives with his mum. Kay's
father Jim died recently.
Toni's father Barry Cavanagh, 71, has moved away
from the memories to live in country NSW. He had
been bringing up Toni and her sister Vicki after
he and their mother divorced.
DNA was collected from the parents and dental
records secured but they did not match any
unidentified bodies. Reported sightings of the
girls in Brisbane and Cairns have been ruled
out.
School friends said Kay and Toni were unlikely
friends and it was unthinkable they had made a
pact to run away. Kay was a family person,
studious, happy, friendly and very close to her
twin brother. Toni was more outgoing, vivacious
"even a bit wild", according to her dad, but she
had never gone missing before.
Neither was dressed for a disco. Kay wore fawn
trousers, brown floral top, black boots; Toni a
blue blouse, fawn jacket with hood and white
jeans.
Kay said goodbye to her parents about 5.45pm,
telling them she was going to Toni's to babysit.
Because she was afraid of the dark, she asked
Kevin to meet her at Toni's at 9pm and walk her
home. But when he got there on his pushbike, he
discovered there was no babysitting.
Friends told police the pair had planned to go
to one of two discos - the under-18s disco at
Wollongong's Pioneer Hall or the licensed Hoffra
House in Crown Lane.
Sen-Constable Flood said they did not know
whether the girls ever made it. The original
investigation did not interview patrons from
that night.
"I'd like to find out where Kay and Toni are,"
said Sgt Kelly. "If it is the case they are
deceased, their remains are somewhere. Having
worked with their families for a number of years
now, it is about bringing closure to them by
finding out what happened more than it is about
getting an arrest and a conviction."
Anyone with any information can contact Strike
Force Mundawari on 02 4295 2636 or Crime
Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
$100k reward over girls' cold murder case
PostedMon
Nov 16, 2009 5:49pm AEDT - ABC
A $100,000 reward is being offered for information about the suspected murder of
two teenage girls in New South Wales 30 years ago.
Kay Docherty, 16, and Toni Cavanagh, 15, went missing from Warilla, south of
Wollongong, in July 1979.
They were on their way to a disco in Wollongong.
Detective Chief Inspector Michael McLean says the girls were initially treated
as runaways, but police now suspect they were murdered.
"These are good kids and the only mistake they made that night was to go out of
their house with the intention of going to a disco in Wollongong," Chief
Inspector McLean said.
"We are unfortunately satisfied that these girls most probably met foul play."
Chief Inspector McLean says he hopes the reward will encourage people to come
forward with information.
"We believe there has to be somebody in the community that has some knowledge,
whether it be first or third-hand in relation to what happened to these girls,"
he said.
"We really seek these people and ask them to come forward as any information, no
matter how trivial or how small it may seem, may be critical.
"Any information would be treated with the upmost confidence."
Police seek new leads in missing teens cold case
Posted Tue
Nov 17, 2009 11:19am AEDT - ABC
Police have made a fresh appeal for information about the
disappearance of two teenage girls in the Illawarra 30 years ago.
Kay Docherty, 16, and Toni Cavanagh, 15, went missing at Warilla in July
1979.
The New South Wales Government has announced a $100,000 reward for
information about the case.
Lake Illawarra Detective Chief Inspector Michael McLean says the girls
were initially treated as runaways but police now suspect they were murdered.
"These are good kids and the only mistake they made that night was to go
out of their house with the intention of going to a disco in Wollongong, they've
done nothing else wrong," he said.
"We are unfortunately satisfied that these girls most probably met foul
play, so once again we just ask people to come forward.
"Any information would be treated with the upmost confidence."
Reward Offered to Solve Double
Disappearance and Suspected Murder
Monday 16th November 2009
Minister for Police Michael Daley today announced that a $100,000 NSW Government
reward would be offered to help Police solve the disappearance and presumed
murders of Kay Docherty and Toni Cavanagh.
Mr Daley said Kay, 16, and Toni, 15, went missing from Warilla, a southern
coastal suburb of Wollongong, three decades ago.
“On the 27th July 1979, Kay told her parents she was staying at Toni’s house and
Toni told her family they were going to the movies with Kay’s Aunt and Uncle,”
he said.
“It’s believed the girls were on their way to the Wollongong CBD to attend a
disco, but it’s not known whether they ever made it.
“Both girls were reported missing to the Lake Illawarra Local Area Command on
Sunday 29th July.
“The following week, Toni and Kay’s families received separate letters from the
pair posted from the Kings Cross area, saying they were staying with friends and
would be home soon.
“There have been no confirmed sightings of the girls since they were seen at the
bus stop at dusk on the evening of Friday 27th, although there was an
unconfirmed sighting in Queensland in 1984.
“Strike Force Mundawari has been formed to investigate the pair’s disappearance
and detectives are interested in any information which will lead to the arrest
and conviction of those responsible for Toni and Kay’s disappearance and
suspected murder.
“Their families have spent the last 30 years wondering what happened to their
daughters, and they deserve closure.
“I hope that the lure of a cash reward may encourage those with information, who
may have been reluctant to come forward at the time, to help Police bring those
responsible to justice.
“It may not seem like much but if anybody has any piece of information, however
small, it could prove to be the vital link police need to find out what
happened,” Mr Daley said.
Detective Chief Inspector Michael McLean said detectives have recently travelled
to South Eastern Queensland and interviewed witnesses in the Brisbane and Gold
Coast areas.
“It has become apparent through inquiries that a high percentage of those who
lived in the Illawarra and knew of the girls at the time they disappeared, have
relocated to that area,” Mr McLean said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Darren Kelly said Strike Force Mundawari detectives
are grateful for the support of the NSW Government in progressing this case.
“This reward is a great opportunity to finally discover what happened to these
young girls,” he said.
Mr Daley said that any information will be treated as strictly confidential and
may be given at any time of the day or night.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Inquest finds two Wollongong teenagers died in 1970s
Posted
An inquest into the disappearance of two Wollongong teenagers in the late 1970s
has concluded they are no longer alive.
Magistrate Geraldine Beattie found that 16-year-old Kay Docherty and 15-year old
Toni Cavanagh died a short time after their disappearance in July 1979.
Their bodies have never been found.
The teenagers were last seen at a bus stop heading to a disco in Wollongong.
A letter from the pair arrived a week later saying they were in Sydney, but they
were never seen or heard from again.
The inquest heard evidence from investigating detectives that the girls may have
been murdered by fugitive Wollongong killer Graham Potter or backpacker murder
Ivan Milat, but no detailed evidence was provided to support the claims.
Images released in search for Kay Docherty and Toni
Cavanagh's killers
By Angela
Thompson Illawarra Mercury
Updated August
12 2016
For seven years Kevin Docherty has held tight two pictures that could
unlock one of the Illawarra’s deepest and most harrowing mysteries.
Or they could not.
After 37 years without his missing and presumed murdered twin sister
Kay, Mr Docherty takes care not to get his hopes up.
Kay and fellow Lake Illawarra High School student Toni Cavanagh vanished
from near a bus stop outside Warilla Grove shopping centre on July 27,
1979.
Lake Illawarra police believe the girls were trying to make their way to
a Wollongong disco when they met with foul play.
Detectives invited renowned medium Debbie Malone to assist their
investigation in 2009. Part of Ms Malone’s contribution
was computer-generated pictures of two men she identified as having
abducted and murdered the girls.
Police never released the images; Mr Docherty also opted not to share
them, until now.
As the 37th anniversary of the girls’ disappearance passed last month, he
remembered the pledge he made to his mother Jean on her deathbed, to never
relinquish his efforts to find Kay.
“It was a big promise, and I thought about it before i said it,” Mr Docherty
told the Mercury.
“There wasn’t a great deal of thought put into [sharing the pictures] –
I’m just clutching at straws.”
The pictures show two men aged 18-22, as they would have looked in 1979.
They possibly came from Sydney, and drove an early 1960s-1970s Holden,
according to Ms Malone.
The value of the pictures remains to be seen. Mr Docherty said Ms Malone was
one of four psychics who had contacted him with information about his
sister’s disappearance.
“They all think they know what happened – but I never get my hopes up,” he
said.
“I’m just trying to piece together everything they say and see if anyone’s
got anything in common.”
In 1996, police investigating Ivan Milat and the backpacker murders visited
the Docherty home. Milat reportedly worked for a road gang in Kiama in the
late 1970s and was known to travel along Shellharbour Road.
Mr Docherty notes that Milat’s name “keeps coming up” in connection with the
girls.
He favours another scenario – that Toni – the more outgoing of the girls
– arranged to get a lift with a male or males she knew, and that Kay joined
her in the car.
Detective Senior Sergeant Darren Kelly admits to having developed a personal
interest in the case after years of absorbing himself in its finer details.
He says Ms Malone’s images were not released in 2009 as they had the
potential to mislead witnesses. He said Mr Docherty’s decision to share the
images now, after two inquests that resulted in open findings, could
generate new information.
“We’ve come to a part of the investigation where there are no further fresh
leads for us. I’m always encouraging more people to come forward who might
have critical information relating to the disappearance of the girls.”
Police medium ‘saw’ faces of girls’ killers
Debbie Malone was convinced of it; she was looking at the faces of two
killers. The difficult part, at Lake Illawarra Police Station in 2009, was
converting what she saw into something detectives could use. The station had
no computer program to compose the faces Ms Malone, a renowned Sutherland
Shire-based medium, claimed to see.
Brought in to aid the investigation into the July, 1979 disappearance of
Warilla schoolgirls Kay Docherty and Toni Malone, Ms Malone and
police produced the pictures the old fashioned way.
“It was just a book,” Ms Malone told the Mercury. “There was a page of
mouths, a page of noses, a page of eyes … “I think it took four weeks for it
to come back [as a complete picture]. That’s when I saw the faces
completely. I didn’t get to tweak it. That was the hardest part.”
Despite the method, Ms Malone said she was satisfied with the final
‘identikit’ images. Held privately for seven years, Miss Docherty’s twin
brother Kevin recently made the pictures public, reigniting interest in the
37-year-old case.
Ms Malone handled items from Kay’s jewelery box the day she visited the
police station. As detectives looked on, she took a delicate silver chain
and other items in her hands and experienced a series of visions.
“I saw the girls’ faces – a fair blonde-headed girl and a red-headed girl. I
said, ‘it’s Toni Cavanagh and Kay Docherty’. I just knew who they were,” she
said. “Kay came across as shy. Toni … was a bit of a wild child and a bit
more streetwise than Kay.”.
Ms Malone accompanied police to a section of Seven Mile Beach she had
identified as the girls’ likely location. Police twice searched the area
with cadaver dogs, but found nothing.
“I still feel they’re there,” Ms Malone said. “It’s just we weren’t right on the
spot.”
Psychic ‘saw’ Warilla's Kay Docherty and Toni Cavanagh's
violent end
Computer-generated pictures of two men who may be involved in Kay and Toni's
disappearance.
A psychic medium who assisted a police investigation into the 1979
disappearance of two Warilla schoolgirls has detailed some of the
pair’s final moments, in a disturbing new account based on a series of
visions.
Debbie Malone claims Lake Illawarra High School students Kay Docherty and
Toni Cavanagh were driven to secluded bushland off Seven Mile Beach
and violently raped, killed and buried, the same night they vanished from a
Warilla bus stop almost 38 years ago.
The girls willingly got into a car with a man romantically linked to Toni,
before the night spiraled well out of both girls’ control, Ms Malone claims.
The account is contained in Ms Malone’s recently-released second book, Clues
from Beyond, which details her work on multiple criminal cases.
Detectives re-investigating the disappearance of Kay and Toni invited Ms
Malone to handle the girls’ belongings at a police station in Warilla in
2009.
Ms Malone told detectives she ‘saw’ the girls, and was able to communicate
with them. Part of her contribution to the police investigation were computer-generated
pictures of two men she identified as having abducted and murdered the
girls.
She claims Toni was “quite smitten” with one of the men, described as having a
thin build and long face, with light brown/sandy blonde hair, aged 18-22, who
may be linked to the name Ronald.
Toni convinced the less confident Kay to get in the car when the man arrived to
collect them from the bus stop about 7.30pm, July 27, 1979, Ms Malone writes.
She claims the driver headed south and collected a friend who was staying at
his family’s weekender in a Windang caravan park that has since been
converted into a retirement village.
The friend had curly, almost fuzzy, brown/ginger hair, a distinctive nose,
blue eyes, “nice white, straight teeth” and a stocky build”.
He may have been a brother to one of Toni’s neighbours, she suggested.
She claims the girls were driven to a place near Seven Mile Beach, where Kay
attempted to leave.
“I could feel Kay’s stress and anxiety … I could see that the headlights of
the car were still on and Kay getting out of the car and running in front of
the headlights. Kay looks back at Toni and the driver as if she is a
startled kangaroo in the headlights.”
Kay, then Toni, were violently sexually assaulted by the darker-haired man,
Ms Malone claims. She saw nothing of their murders.
“It was as if I was not allowed to witness the horror that the girls were
made to endure. I got the feeling that the girls were stabbed to death.”
Ms Malone attempted to lead detectives to the girls’ graves on March 25,
2010 but, despite the involvement of cadaver dogs, the search was
unsuccessful.
'Did you do
it?': Warilla's Kevin Docherty wants to lay his missing sister Kay to rest
Not a day goes by for Kevin Docherty when he does not think about his
twin sister Kay who went missing more than 40 years ago.
Missing Persons Week, from August 2 to 8, is particularly tough
for the Warilla resident but he knows if he wants to keep Kay's case
alive then he needs to talk about the pain of her disappearance, and
likely murder.
Despite being only 16-years-old at the time, Mr Docherty has a very
clear memory of the events of that fateful day and the lasting impact it
had on his heartbroken parents.
It follows him where ever he goes.
He sometimes looks at people and thinks, 'was it you?', 'did you do
it?'.
But he tries not to dwell on his loss, rather preferring to lead as
normal life as possible.
Mr Docherty tries to be thankful for every day as he knows how easy it
is for everything to change.
Kay Docherty, then aged 16, and Toni Cavanagh, then aged 15, were last
seen on July 27, 1979 around 7.30pm.
There was a sighting of the schoolgirls at Bulli Tops, shortly
afterwards and no confirmed sightings since.
"We came home from Lake Illawarra High School and Kay asked Mum if she
could stay with a friend Toni, who was more of an associate, that night
to help her babysit," Mr Docherty said.
"Mum said no. We weren't allowed to stay out anywhere.
"My sister went into her room and started crying.
"Mum told Kay she could go for only two or three hours while I was at
band practice. I was to take her and pick her up on my pushbike.
"It was the first time she was allowed out on her own. She was scared of
the dark."
Mr Docherty said he finished band practice about 8.30pm and rode to
Toni's place where, to his surprise, her stepmother told him the girls
had gone to the movies.
"I only found out last year that Toni had spoken to her friends at
school and asked them to go out that night but none of the girls were
allowed," he said.
"She had asked Kay to help babysit, that was all she knew because if it
was anything else there was no way would my sister would have gone. She
wouldn't have gone to Wollongong or a disco."
Police believe the girls were on their way to the Wollongong CBD to
attend a dance, but it's not known whether they ever made it.
"We had a good home life and she didn't run away," Mr Docherty said.
He stayed in the area looking for Kay, hoping she would appear but that
never happened.
"I kept thinking, 'how am I going to tell Mum?'," Mr Docherty said.
The teen broke the news to his Mum, Jean, when he arrived home and she
immediately panicked.
She started calling the mothers of Kay's friends before they walked to
the police station a few hours later, where they were told to come back
in 24 and 48 hours.
"Mum didn't sleep that night. She left the outside light on. That stayed
on for years," Mr Docherty said.
"We were sitting around waiting. It was eerie in the house.
"I struggled to sleep for weeks after she disappeared. I had nightmares
that something bad had happened to Kay.
"At no stage did I think she was safe."
"Until we get a resolution or answers I will continue to ask
'why?'"
Kevin Docherty
Mr Docherty believes his sister was likely murdered, which is what a
Coroner ruled during a 2013 Coronal inquest.
The days and weeks that followed were incredibly hard for the Docherty
family, who searched for around the Wollongong area, called every
community organisation, charities and friends before Mr Docherty's
father went to Sydney to put up posters.
Then a glimmer of hope appeared in the form of a handwritten note sent
from Darlinghurst that said Kay was staying with friends in Sydney,
would be "home soon" and that she loved her family.
However, after studying the letter, the family knew it wasn't written by
Kay as the handwriting was different and there were spelling errors.
"Kay was regarded as a runaway. Nothing happened with the police for
years. That was terrible," Mr Docherty said.
"That was the way times were. Now looking back, they could have done
more if they acted earlier.
"Who knows, she could be alive today.
"Until we get a resolution or answers I will continue to ask 'why?'"
The family tried to return to as normal life as possible but it was
never the same. They would always hope she would come home one day.
"There was nowhere we could go where people weren't talking her
disappearance," Mr Docherty said.
"Still to this day, especially during Missing Persons Week, people stop
me in the street."
"We always tried to remain positive. My job at 16 was to console my Mum.
"For years after, I didn't want to leave Mum alone. For many years I
didn't leave the house."
Mr Docherty promised his mother while on her death bed that he would
always hold out hope Kay, who would now be 57-years-old, would return
and he would always "keep looking".
He wishes he has a resolution so he can finally move on and lay his
sister to rest.
"If she had been murdered and there was evidence and a body then we
could have accepted it but that was never to be, especially never for my
Mum and Dad," he said.
"For a parent to lose a child and not have any answers is the hardest
thing a parent could ever go through."
Mr Docherty said he still gets contacted up to six times a year from
people who may have information or believe they have seen Kay, but no
report has been credible.
The South Coast Martial Arts Centre owner said he was glad a new Missing
Persons Registry had been created last year. The investigative team have
been digitising old case files.
He was told his sister's case would be the number one priority however
that was four months ago and he has not heard from the team since.
"Missing Persons Week is always hard to get through," Mr Docherty said.
"I don't dwell on it. I know it is always coming but it is hard to
prepare for.
"There is never day I don't think about her but I don't dwell on it
because otherwise I would be in an early grave like my Mum and Dad."
