Trudie Jeanette ADAMS

Thanks to Anthony Barnao's book "Violent Crimes that Shocked a Nation" for some of the photographs and information about Trudie. Photo above right is from the Daily Telegraph.

Trudie Adams has been missing since the night of June 24th, 1978. She was 18 years old and a business college student from Avalon on Sydney's Northern Beaches. She had long Blonde hair, grey-green eyes, slim build, 162cm tall. She was last seen wearing a Bottle Green floral blouse and Black jumper.

Trudie left her home at 7pm to attend a party with friends and walked up Barrenjoey Road. She turned south to walk towards Newport. A motorist stopped to give her a lift to her friend Debbie's house and from here Trudie and Debbie walked to the Newport Hotel, arriving at 8:30pm. They stayed until closing time, 10pm. Trudie was excited about her upcoming trip to Bali in 6 weeks time. The girls travelled in a friend's car to the Newport Surf Lifesaving Club. At 10:30pm Trudie's boyfriend Steve Norris, pictured above, aged 22 arrived. Trudie left the Club for about an hour, her whereabouts unknown, but returned at 11:30pm. During this time Steve was upstairs at the club with friends. Shortly after midnight Trudie ran outside, upset, telling no one where she was going. Steve saw her leave from the window of the Club heading for Barrenjoey Road and he assumed she would try and catch a lift as he had no car. Trudie had a habit of accepting lifts from strangers at night and this worried Steve. It was common for many people to hitch rides on the Northern Beaches at that time as there was little or no public transport available.

Steve followed her out of the Club but as he was crossing the carpark Trudie had already reached the road and was getting into a fawny-beige 1974 - 76 Holden panel van with no side windows which had stopped to give her a lift and was already speeding up Barrenjoey Road towards Palm Beach. Steve flagged down another car to follow her but the panel van moved too quickly out of sight behind Bilgola Headland, northward.

Trudie lived just 6 minutes away but did not arrive home and she has never been seen again. Steve hitched a ride to Trudie's house and waited there for her but she never came home.

Five days after Trudie disappeared (June 29th) a male person telephoned both Trudie's parents and Mona Vale Police and said "Trudie is dead. You will find her about half way up Mona Vale Road. It was an accident."  Police searched a huge area, almost 400 square kilometres including extensively along Mona Vale Road but no trace of Trudie was found.

In the months before Trudie disappeared a total of 8 girls reported they had been picked up hitchhiking on Barrenjoey Road between Newport and Mona Vale, and were raped at gunpoint. A ninth girl was abducted at gunpoint while waiting for a bus. The suspects were two men aged about 30 years, Australian.

The victims' eyes were taped, they were handcuffed then tortured and raped after being driven into bushland within a 20km radius of where they were picked up.

**I think the panel van would have been a HJ model (as the HQ's had side windows.) This is what the HJ panel van would have looked like (but fawny-beige) -

Reward of $250,000 to solve disappearance of Trudie Adams

Detectives appeal for help to solve 30-year mystery - Unsolved Homicide Team

2008-07-29 12:22:10

 
NSW Homicide Squad detectives investigating the suspected murder of a teenager 30 years ago have today welcomed a $250,000 reward which has been put up by the NSW Government.
 
Strike Force Keldie has been established by the Unsolved Homicide Team to carry out further inquiries into the disappearance of Trudie Adams.
 
Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford, said the case is among more than 190 allocated for further investigation by the Team.
 
"The disappearance and suspected murder of Trudie Adams impacted deeply on the northern beaches community.
 
"Tragically, Trudie's mother has since passed away without knowing her daughter's fate or seeing anyone brought to justice," Detective Superintendent Beresford said.
 
Trudie was only 18 and had been at a dance with her boyfriend at the Newport surf lifesaving club on the evening of 24 June 1978.
 
She left the dance alone and it is believed her intention was to hitch-hike home. Trudie was last seen getting into a light-coloured 1977-model Holden panel van on Barrenjoey Road in the early hours of 25 June 1978.
 
Her parents and boyfriend reported her missing later that day after she failed to arrive home.
 
"It is our belief she was kidnapped by two males and murdered," Detective Superintendent Beresford said.
 
At the time of Trudie's disappearance, extensive searches were conducted unsuccessfully of the dense bushland of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
 
Following Trudie's disappearance a number of young women came forward to report being abducted and violently sexually assaulted in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The incidents occurred between 1971 and 1978 and involved females aged between 14 and 20.
 
Strong links have been established by detectives between the sexual assaults and Trudie's disappearance.
 
"As a result of our inquiries, we believe Trudie's abduction was sexually-motivated.
 
"Furthermore, we suspect there are more victims of these two sexual predators who have not previously come forward to police. Support is available to these women, who we are encouraging to contact strike Force Keldie detectives.  Their information, despite the passage of time, might be crucial to helping us charge those responsible in this case," he said.
 
"Unsolved Homicide Team detectives have already carried out numerous inquiries since this case was reviewed and allocated for further investigation.
 
"In particular, Strike Force Keldie detectives are making inquiries in Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand, as well as in New South Wales. As a result of these investigations detectives are following strong lines of inquiry.
 
"Thirty years may have passed, but we are determined to provide this family with the answers which will give them some sense of closure," Detective Superintendent Beresford said.
 
The NSW Government has put up a $250,000 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person/s responsible for Trudie's suspected death.
 
Members of the public can provide information to Strike Force Keldie detectives by contacting their nearest police station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
 
Callers can remain anonymous and information will be treated in the strictest confidence.
 
 

Cold case murder trail leads police to NZ

By New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie - ABC

Posted 5 hours 44 minutes ago July 31st 2008

New South Wales detectives will arrive in New Zealand today as part of a cold case investigation into the disappearance of a Sydney teenager 30 years ago.

Trudie Adams disappeared in June 1978 after she went dancing with her boyfriend at Sydney's Newport surf club.

Police believe the 18-year-old was kidnapped, raped and killed by two men.

Extensive searches were conducted in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park at the time of her disappearance.

NSW homicide squad commander Geoff Beresford says they are aiming to speak to a person of interest who now lives in New Zealand.

He says there is a $250,000 reward for information which results in an arrest.

"We're hoping that will provide an incentive certainly for someone to come forward," he said.

"There's no doubt that there are people out there who know what happened."

The Unsolved Homicide Team is currently investigating 190 cold cases.

Gangs quizzed over Sydney cold case

A group of men who called themselves "The Roseland Lads" were once questioned over the suspected murder of a Sydney teenager more than 30 years ago, an inquest has heard.

Trudie Adams was seen on June 24, 1978, leaving a dance at the Newport Surf Life Saving Club in a fawn or beige-coloured van. She was never heard from again.

An inquest began yesterday into the case, which heard that two groups of unconnected men were once at the centre of the investigation.

The Roseland Lads owned two vehicles linked to the crime and were in the area at the time of Ms Adams' disappearance, the Daily Telegraph reports.

A source told police that two men were involved in the disappearance, and that she had been raped before being hit on the head with "a spanner".

Another witness told police the Roseland Lads said that if another woman "didn't come up to scratch she would get what Trudie Adams got".

The Roseland Lads all deny involvement.

The other group — linked to a series of violent sex attacks across NSW between 1971 and 1978 — was led by criminal Neville Tween, also known as John Anderson.

Tween is currently in prison over a $7 million cocaine importation racket. Among his other crimes was abducting and sexually assaulting a man at gunpoint in 1975.

The inquest heard the attack against the man was similar to those against 14 other women in the area and believed to have culminated in the abduction and suspected murder of Ms Adams.

"She has not been seen — by anyone who cares, anyway — since," said counsel assisting coroner Peter Hamill SC.

"The overwhelming likelihood is Trudie met with foul play early that morning, administered by the person or persons who picked her up on Barrenjoey Rd."

The inquest continues today.

Policeman names suspect in Adams inquest

Updated Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:29pm AEDT - ABC

A police investigator has told an inquest he believes he knows who is responsible for the disappearance of a girl on Sydney's Northern Beaches in 1978.

Trudie Adams was 18 years old when she went missing after a dance at Newport Surf Club.

Her body has never been found.

Detective Senior Constable Gavin McKean has told Glebe Coroners Court he thinks Neville Tween, also known as John Anderson, is responsible for what happened to Miss Adams.

Tween is serving time in prison on drug charges.

Detective McKean says 14 women came forward after Miss Adams went missing, describing similar sexual assaults involving being blindfolded and held at gun point.

But he has admitted that a number of the women were unable to identify Tween as their attacker.

Carefree beach lifestyle hid sinister crimes

THE night she went dancing at the Newport surf club, Trudie Adams asked her mother to wait up for her. The 18-year-old never came home.

An inquest into her disappearance in 1978 heard there was a dark side to the carefree lifestyle enjoyed in those days on the northern beaches, with 14 young women reporting they were abducted and raped before Ms Adams's suspected murder.

The attacks began in 1971 and ended when Ms Adams, a business student, went missing on June 25, 1978.

Two groups of men emerged as possible suspects in her disappearance, the State Coroners Court in Glebe heard yesterday. One is believed responsible for the string of sex attacks. Members of the other group, the Roselands Lads, allegedly talked of their involvement in her abduction.

Ms Adams's father, Charles, and brother, John, were joined at the inquest by her boyfriend at the time, Steven Norris. After Ms Adams left the club about midnight, Mr Norris saw her get into a light-coloured panel van, though police initially identified the vehicle as a green Kombi van.

"The overwhelming likelihood is that Trudie met with foul play that morning,'' Peter Hamill, SC, assisting the coroner, said.

Among the ''persons of interest'' is Neville Tween, also known as John Anderson, who is in prison over a $7 million cocaine importation. His ''diverse and lengthy criminal history'' included offences against a young man who was abducted, handcuffed and sexually assaulted at gunpoint in bushland off Mona Vale Road in 1975.

The attack was strikingly similar to those reported by young women hitch-hiking in the area. Many were blindfolded, handcuffed and threatened with firearms by assailants wearing false beards and wigs.

One Tween associate was found in 1978 with wigs, false beards and firearms. Another, Len Evans, was in Long Bay jail when Ms Adams disappeared; he allegedly boasted to a fellow inmate about committing rapes with Mr Tween in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, giving details ''chillingly reminiscent'' of what happened to the 14 victims, Mr Hamill said.

Newspaper reports suggested the NSW Crime Commission had been approached with information about Ms Adams in an effort to seal a deal on drug charges for a Tween associate. But a deputy state coroner, Scott Mitchell, was told that secrecy provisions prevent officers disclosing information except where necessary for a prosecution.

While Mr Hamill said it was ''somewhat unsatisfactory'', it was unknown whether the commission had information that could help the inquest.

Mr Mitchell may consider recommending the provisions be relaxed to allow a coroner access to information on a suspected homicide.

The inquest heard that members of the Roselands Lads owned a panel van and green Kombi. Some were in the Newport area the night Ms Adams disappeared and allegedly bragged about picking her up, saying she was run over or killed trying to escape a sexual assault.

Mr Hamill said the inquest would consider if there was substance to the ''admissions''.

"Career criminal" Neville Tween, also known as John David Anderson, was a significant drug dealer during the 1990s and had a close relationship with a senior crime investigator, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Former NSW police detective Gavin McKean told the inquest he interviewed the more senior officer in 2009 to gain information about Tween.

Tween is serving an 18-year sentence for a conspiracy to import $7 million worth of cocaine, for which his son, 32, was also convicted.

In 1975, Tween and co-accused Garry Batt were convicted over the abduction and rape of a man on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Mr McKean told Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell yesterday he believed Tween was responsible for the disappearance of Ms Adams, who was last seen hitching a lift in a fawn-coloured panel van after a dance at Newport Surf Club, as well as 14 abductions and rapes with striking similarities during the 1970s.

In almost all instances the women were abducted by two men from Barrenjoey Rd, near the Newport Hotel, handcuffed, their eyes taped or blindfolded, and were driven to bushland where they were threatened with a firearm and raped. Tween was never charged over any of the rapes.

Ms Adams' father Charles yesterday recalled the last time he saw Ms Adams: "She kissed me on the forehead and she said, 'I won't be late'."

The inquest into the death of missing teen Trudie Adams resumes on Thursday.

Coroner told of Bali drug mule rumours

A BOYFRIEND of the missing teenager Trudie Adams said yesterday that when he followed her out of the Newport surf club on the night she disappeared in 1978, it was because he was concerned for her safety and not because he was upset over their break-up.

Steven Anthony Norris, who had a steady relationship with Ms Adams for 18 months, said they had had a blazing row a few days earlier, when her father had told him to leave. Mr Norris said the row was probably associated with their break-up.

Mr Norris said that in the 1970s he had been a ''fairly light'' smoker of marijuana and had smoked it with Ms Adams.

He said he had been to Bali twice and had smoked marijuana there.

But he denied he had been a drug ''mule'', that he had brought drugs back, that he had been set up and threatened over drugs, or that he had told someone he came back with a stash of ''Thai sticks'', being marijuana.

Mr Norris said that on June 27, 1978, he had seen Ms Adams at the Newport Arms Hotel and again at the surf club. He had asked her ''a couple of times'' for a dance but she refused.

In answer to Peter Hamill, SC, counsel assisting the coroner's inquest into the disappearance, Mr Norris said he had been drinking but he did not think his emotions were inflamed by alcohol.

He had not been watching her or who she danced with. He had no knowledge that she might have had an interest in another boy, Steve Bryant.

He had gone after her because he was concerned for her safety. He did not think she was trying to get away from him.

But within seconds a beige or fawn-coloured Holden panel van, probably a 1977 model, picked her up.

Mr Norris said he caught a lift to Avalon and went to her home but she did not arrive and has never been seen again.

He said he could not remember telling police about an argument he and Ms Adams had about six months earlier, when they had ''come to blows''.

He did not think Ms Adams's disappearance was connected with drugs.

The hearing continues today.

Paradise lost: northern beaches' dirty secret

A coroner's inquest into the 1978 disappearance of Trudie Adams has reopened old wounds and drawn attention to a darker side of the carefree beach culture, writes Damien Murphy.

Golden-haired girls standing out on Barrenjoey Road hitching, blond young men paddling into sparkling waves at Whale Beach Wedge, barefoot Avalon primary kids bringing dogs to school, and everywhere, cloaking ocean headlands and Pittwater's shores, the dark, silent bush.

Thirty-three years ago people on Sydney's northern beaches joked they lived on the ''insular peninsula'' but thought it heaven on earth. At Newport, they even had a name for it, Paradise Beach.

Then one wintry Saturday night in June 1978, Trudie Adams vanished.

Suddenly an invisible worm was exposed at the heart of northern beaches style.

A coroner's inquest into her disappearance began this week. Sad wounds were reopened and police named an elderly prisoner as prime suspect.

The historian Margo Beasley believes Trudie Adams is emblematic of a dark secret beneath surface glitter. The City of Sydney historian spent her teenage years on the northern beaches and has made a study of sexual and social relationships in surf culture.

''We forget just how brutally masculine much of Australian life was back then,'' Dr Beasley said. ''Life might have seemed free and easy, but it was very different for many girls and young women on the northern beaches. No one spoke of rape. The sexual violence was not visible. But there were abortions, many disappeared for months to have unwanted babies adopted out. There were extraordinary high levels of unreported gang rapes and group sex. Sad little girls, unloved … lots were foster kids.''

Nat Young grew up at Collaroy and provided an insight into the northern beaches zeitgeist in his 1998 autobiography Nat's Nat and That's That: A Surfing Legend:

''The Grunter was really into group sex and we all greeted her with open flies every time we saw her getting off the school bus. This began happening a few times a week on a regular basis, then every weekend when all the crew at Collaroy would join the queue … Other girls from our beach started to get a bit jealous of all the attention the Grunter was getting and some decided it was better to join her if they couldn't beat her. The competition was terrific. 'Brenda the Bender', 'Sally Apple Bowels', the list got longer and longer and we had plenty of activity down at the beach in between riding waves.''

The Queensland criminologist Paul Wilson thought Trudie Adams integral to an era when the beach was evolving into the national persona.

The 18-year-old Avalon business student disappeared just as the northern beaches' easy embrace of sex, dope and rock and roll unravelled. Drugs were claiming leading surfers, NSW royal commissions were putting the squeeze on marijuana, AIDS was not far ahead and Ivan Milat was yet to turn hitch-hiking into a life-threatening form of transport.

''In a broad sense you could draw a line between Wanda beach, the disappearance of the Beaumont children, the Truro murders and Leigh Leigh and see them as all part of Australia's emerging engagement with the beach and a less stringent lifestyle,'' Professor Wilson said.

''Certainly these things had happened in towns, cities and the bush. But the rise of the beach gave people a new world: a chance to lose inhibitions, it's a place of display yet paradoxically amid all that freedom and beauty, it can be violent. It makes people think they can get away with murder.''

The northern beaches lifestyle also attracted men from outside hunting easy prey. The inquest heard the ''Roseland Lads'' gang was prowling the peninsula the night Trudie Adams vanished.

''Hitch-hiking was a way of life,'' Dr Beasley said. ''Public transport was abysmal, you had to wait hours sometimes. If somebody pulled up at a bus stop and offered a ride, you took it.''

Trudie Adams left home about 7 pm, hitched to a friend's house, walked to the Newport Hotel, and got a lift to a dance at the Newport Surf Life Saving Club.

Her recently dumped boyfriend Steve Norris saw her leave. He followed her to Barrenjoey Road and watched her thumb a lift in a brown 1977 Holden panel van. A fellow student at Barrenjoey High School, Carolyn Drake, told the inquest yesterday she had picked up Trudie and dropped her at her home after ''telling her off'' for hitch-hiking.

Police named Neville Tween, 70, as prime suspect. A police informer serving an 18-year sentence at Long Bay for conspiracy to import $7 million worth of cocaine in 2006, Tween was convicted of abducting a man and forcing fellatio and other acts at gunpoint in local bushland in 1975.

Police consider Tween's modus operandi evident in 14 abductions and rapes around the northern beaches between 1971 and 1979. Women were picked up along Barrenjoey Road, handcuffed, blindfolded and driven to bushland where they were threatened with a firearm and raped. The attacks stopped when Tween left the area.

Tween cannot give closure to those who grieve for Trudie Adams. He has dementia.

Detective doubts inquest claim

Amanda Murphy, who now has the surname Smith, has given evidence today at an inquest into the disappearance and suspected murder of 18-year-old Ms Adams in June 1978.

Ms Murphy, then aged 16, said she finished a shift at Newport's Kentucky Fried Chicken shop at 9pm on the night of June 24.

She told Glebe Coroner's Court she left work and decided to hitch a lift to the Newport Arms Hotel - otherwise a 20 minute walk - because she was rushing to meet up with her boyfriend, who she jokingly said she wanted to "protect" from other girls.
 

Adams inquest suspect claims being set up

By court reporter Jamelle Wells - ABC

Updated Wed Feb 2, 2011 1:13pm AEDT

A man police suspect was involved in the disappearance of Sydney woman Trudie Adams has told an inquest he has been set up over a string of crimes.

Glebe Coroner's Court has heard that 70-year-old Neville Tween, also known as John Anderson, is a suspect in the disappearance of Trudie Adams.

The 18-year-old was last seen leaving Newport Surf Club in Sydney's north in 1978.

Tween's evidence to the inquest today lead to an angry exchange with the Coroner.

Currently serving a jail sentence for drug offences, Tween told the inquest that police have set him up on a string of criminal offences that he has been convicted of since the age of nine.

Tween said that, although police also suspect he was involved in a number of abductions and rapes on the Northern Beaches, "their red hot case is just speculation".

When pressed about some of his vague answers to questions Tween said the speculation has damaged his reputation.

Coroner Scott Mitchell then snapped back, "you haven't seen anything yet" and told the witness the real damage will be if the inquest finds he is linked to Trudie Adams' disappearance.

"We'll take a break and you can think about that," the Coroner said.

Earlier Tween told the court he was not an angel but that police had framed him for a number of crimes.

His response was to a question from the council assisting, "do you agree you've led a life of crime?"

The inquest heard Tween has a number of convictions that include theft, and drug offences.

He is now serving an 11-year jail sentence for drug offences and is being held in the Long Bay Prison Hospital.

He told the Counsel Assisting he has not obtained legal advice because he cannot afford it

Adams inquest told suspect is a sexual deviant

By court reporter Jamelle Wells - ABC

Updated Tue Feb 1, 2011 2:34pm AEDT

An inquest has heard that a man police suspect was involved in the disappearance of Sydney woman Trudie Adams, is a sexual deviant.

The 18-year-old student disappeared after leaving a dance at the Newport Surf Club in Sydney's north in the early hours of June 25, 1978.

Glebe Coroner's Court has heard that, although her body has never been found, police suspect 70-year-old Neville Tween (also known as John Anderson), who is in jail for drug offences, may have been involved in her disappearance.

Garry James Batt, who served a six month jail sentence for abducting and sexually assaulting a male victim with Neville Tween in 1975, told the court that Tween asked him to bring the victim to bushland in Kuringai National Park, north of Sydney.

He said Tween thought the male victim had cheated him in a $200 drug deal involving marijuana 'cut with parsley'.

The witness said he assumed Tween would "give him a backhander and tell him the error of his ways", but instead he terrorised the victim with a sub machine gun, forcing him to strip and dig his own grave.

"He was pretty crazy," he said.

Garry Batt said he fled to Melbourne after serving his sentence because in jail Tween told him "If you don't disappear, I'll make you disappear".

The witness said 70-year-old Tween was a sexual deviant.

Former detective Gavin McKean has previously told the inquest he thought Tween was responsible for Trudie Adams' murder and the abduction and rape of several other female hitchhikers.

Tween's first wife, Dulcie, has given evidence.

Tween is expected to give evidence tomorrow.

One-time criminal Gary Batt has told how his former associate Neville Tween - named as a person of interest in Ms Adams' disappearance - "went well over the top" in the pair's sex attack on a young man and Batt had later feared for his own safety.

"If something would have happened, he [Tween] would not have left any witnesses," Batt told Glebe Coroners Court. Tween, also known as John Anderson, is currently in jail for importing cocaine. He is due to give evidence at the inquest today.

Tween's ex-wife Dulcie Anderson testified he had been violent towards her in their marriage but said she knew nothing about his sexual offending.

Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell has been told 18-year-old Ms Adams was last seen leaving the Newport Surf Club, on Sydney's Northern Beaches, after midnight on June 25, 1978.

Tween also has been named as a suspect in relation to a number of sexual assaults in the Northern Beaches area in the years before Ms Adams went missing.

Batt told the inquest he and Tween each served six months in jail after pleading guilty to procuring a male for an indecent purpose in July 1975.

The young man - who had ripped off Tween in a drug deal - was abducted, handcuffed and sexually assaulted at gunpoint in bushland in Sydney's north.

Batt said he had been friends with Tween since they met in a boy's home in 1955 until Tween went "a bit crazy".

After the attack on the young man, Batt formed the view Tween was a sexual deviant. Batt said he fled to Melbourne after serving his sentence as Tween had threatened him in jail.

"I feared for my life," he said.

He said Tween told him "if you don't disappear I will make you disappear".

Police urge those with new info on Trudie Adams case to come forward

RENEWED interest in the disappearance of Avalon teenager Trudie Adams — sparked by a new true crime documentary and podcast — has prompted police to urge people with new information to come forward.

But a decision is yet to be made by police whether the high profile case will reopened as part of a shake-up of NSW cold case homicides.

About 400 of the Unsolved Homicide Unit’s cases across NSW will be reviewed before its detectives are assigned to focus on “priority” cases that police say could now be solvable.

As part of the review into Trudie’s case, Adam, a team of senior police will look into the availability of witnesses, the use of new technology and whether there are lines of inquiry not followed up properly at the time of the original investigation.

In May, Homicide Squad Commander Scott Cook said they would look at the best opportunities to solve cases and the cases that could be solved now would be given priority for reinvestigation­.

“Every case is going to get reviewed and I’m sorry to the families if their case is less solvable than others,” Superintendent Cook said at the time. “It’s not forgotten and it will be looked at again and again.”

A police spokesman said last week that the disappearance and suspected murder of Trudie Adams remains under the responsibility of the Unsolved Homicide Unit.

“The matter is expected to undergo a formal review under the new framework in the near future,” the spokesman said. “This process can take a number of months.

“The NSW Police Force encourages anyone who has information about any crime — no matter when it occurred — to come forward.”

ABC News began broadcasting a six-part podcast four weeks ago — Barrenjoey Road — delving into the unsolved disappearance of Ms Adams and the subsequent police investigation.

It has also aired two parts of a three-part TV documentary series about the case.

In August, the Manly Daily released its own podcast into the case. It included reports about how publicity surrounding Ms Adams’ disappearance prompted 14 women to come forward to report rapes while they were hitchhiking between Mona Vale and Palm Beach between 1971 and 1978.

Each victim said they had been blindfolded with tape, handcuffed, driven to bushland and raped at gunpoint.

At a 2011 inquest into Ms Adams’ disappearance, detectives Gavin McKean and Nicole Jones, of the Unsolved Homicide Squad, said they knew the answer to the mystery.

Mr McKean, who is no longer in the force, said he strongly believed that Ms Adams was kidnapped by career criminal and convicted sex offender Neville Tween and an accomplice.

He told the inquest Tween was also involved in the sex assaults reported by the other 14 women.

He told the inquest that something went wrong as Tween and his mate sexually assaulted Ms Adams and she had ended up dead.

Tween denied any involvement. He died in prison in 2013 while serving time for drug importation.

Tween was an informant for corrupt former Federal Police and NSW Crime Commission officer Mark Standen. The 2011 inquest heard that Standen was a friend of Tween and that Standen had not been helpful when a Manly detective investigating Ms Adams’ disappearance asked him about Tween.

The ABC reported that a number of women had contacted Barrenjoey Road producers to recount experiences of attempted abductions and attacks on the peninsula.