Sarah MacDiarmid | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 November 1966 |
| Disappeared | 11 July 1990 (aged 23) Kananook railway station, Victoria, Australia |
| Status | Missing for 33 years, 8 months and 23 days |
Sarah MacDiarmid (born 15 November 1966) was a 23-year-old Scottish-Australian woman who disappeared from Kananook railway station in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 11 July 1990. [1] She is presumed murdered, although no trace of her body has ever been found. [1]
MacDiarmid, who emigrated with her family in 1987 from the Scottish Highlands to Australia, [2] had been playing tennis after work with two friends at what was then known as Flinders Park in Batman Avenue, East Melbourne, before walking to Richmond station, where they found that they had just missed a Frankston line train. [3] They caught a train to Caulfield, then changed to a Frankston service. MacDiarmid's friends disembarked this train at Bonbeach while she remained, continuing on to Kananook station where her vehicle was parked. [3] She was last seen getting off the train and heading for the poorly lit car park at approximately 10:20 p.m. [1]
Police suspected that MacDiarmid had been assaulted, based on bloodstains found beside her red 1978 Honda Civic abandoned in the station car park, [3] and drag marks leading into the bushes. A cigarette lighter belonging to MacDiarmid was discovered on the ground, but no trace of her was ever found. Later, witnesses said MacDiarmid got off the train and crossed the footbridge to the car park, where some people heard a woman shouting, "Give me back my keys!". [4] An extensive 21-day air, sea and land search, involving more than 250 police, produced no results.
In May 2006, an inquest held by coroner Ian West, [2] found MacDiarmid "had met her death as a result of foul play but the exact circumstances were unknown". [5]
An initial state government reward of $50,000 was increased after an additional $75,000 was offered by an anonymous benefactor. [2] That was increased to $1 million in 2004, [5] and remains current. [6]
In 2011, convicted serial killer Paul Denyer was interviewed by police and denied any involvement in MacDiarmid's disappearance. [7] Denyer stated to the interviewer, Detective Ron Iddles that he was "sick of being accused of murder", and later wrote to Iddles, thanking him for informing the public of him not being involved in the matter.
In May 2014, News Corp Australia claimed police investigators considered convicted serial killer Bandali Debs to be a suspect in the case. [6] Fairfax Media quoted a "senior police source" who said "it was 'common practice' for homicide investigators to examine links between unsolved murders and known offenders". [6] A Victoria Police spokesperson declined to comment to Fairfax Media as MacDiarmid's disappearance was an "active" case. [6]
The cold case was featured in the first episode of the Australian psychic TV series Sensing Murder , which aired on Network Ten in September 2004. [8] The psychics used by this programme opined that MacDiarmid had been murdered and her body thrown into a now-closed rubbish dump on the Mornington Peninsula.
In 2010, marking the 20th anniversary of MacDiarmid's disappearance, her family and friends visited Kananook railway station to leave wreaths at a memorial established there. [9] Her family also announced they had created a website Not Alone which was 'designed to help other families who find themselves in a position similar to them'. [9] Police used the anniversary to issue a new call for information on the case with Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Dannye Moloney stating:
You do not close the books on these sorts of crimes... History proves that if you continue to communicate with the people out there, in Victoria, in Australia, in the world in some cases, that piece of information, that key will come forward and we'll solve it. [9]
In 2021, a nine part Australian crime podcast named Searching for Sarah Macdiarmid was released. [10] Hosted and written by author Vikki Petraitis, the podcast focuses on the backstory of MacDiarmid, her disappearance, and the subsequent investigation.
Frankston is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 41 km (25 mi) south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Frankston local government area. Frankston recorded a population of 37,331 at the 2021 census.
Carrum railway station is located on the Frankston line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Carrum, and opened on 1 August 1882.
Kananook railway station is located on the Frankston line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Seaford, and it opened on 25 August 1975.
Frankston railway station, in Victoria, Australia, is the terminus of the suburban electrified Frankston line and diesel-hauled services on the Stony Point line. It serves the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Frankston, and opened on 1 August 1882.
The Claremont serial killings is the name given by the media to a case involving the disappearance of an Australian woman, aged 18, and the killings of two others, aged 23 and 27, in 1996–1997. After attending night spots in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia, all three women disappeared in similar circumstances leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. The case was described as the state's biggest, longest running, and most expensive investigation.
The backpacker murders were a spate of serial killings that took place in New South Wales, Australia, between 1989 and 1993, committed by Ivan Milat. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partially buried in the Belanglo State Forest, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south-west of the New South Wales town of Berrima. Five of the victims were foreign backpackers and two were Australians from Melbourne. Milat was convicted of the murders on 27 July 1996 and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, as well as 18 years without parole. He died in prison on 27 October 2019, having never confessed to the murders for which he was convicted.
This is a timeline of major crimes in Australia.
Forensic Investigators: Australia's True Crimes is an Australian television show hosted by Lisa McCune which aired on the Seven Network. It aired for three seasons from 2004 to 2006.
The Sharpe family murders refer to an Australian 2004 double murder.
Paul Charles Denyer is an Australian serial killer currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years for the murders of three young women in Melbourne, in 1993. Denyer became known in the media as the Frankston Serial Killer as his crimes occurred in the neighbouring suburbs of Frankston.
Jane Elisa Thurgood-Dove was the victim of a murder in Niddrie, Victoria, Australia in 1997. On 6 November 1997, she was confronted in the driveway of her suburban Melbourne home and shot repeatedly as her three young children, aged 3, 5 and 10, cowered inside her car.
Vikki Petraitis is an Australian true crime author, based in Melbourne, Victoria.
Sidney Charles Cooke is an English convicted child molester and suspected serial killer serving two life sentences. He was the leader of a paedophile ring suspected of up to twenty child murders of young boys in the 1970s and 1980s. Cooke and other members of the ring were convicted of three killings in total, although he was only convicted of one himself.
Brett Peter Cowan is an Australian murderer and serial child rapist. He was convicted of the murder of Daniel Morcombe, a 13-year-old boy who disappeared from the Sunshine Coast on 7 December 2003. His abduction led to an eight-year investigation involving various suspects. As a result of these investigations, Cowan led undercover police to a potential burial site. He was charged with the murder that same month, and Morcombe's remains were discovered days later on 17 August. Cowan was sentenced to life imprisonment, on 13 March 2014 in a trial that attracted worldwide attention. Cowan had two previous convictions for sexually abusing children, the earliest dating back to 1987.
Gillian Meagher was a 29-year-old Irish woman living in Australia who was raped and murdered while walking home from a pub in Brunswick, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, in the early hours of 22 September 2012.
Derek Ernest Percy was an Australian suspected serial killer and convicted child killer who was also a person of interest linked to the mysterious deaths and disappearances of multiple children in the 1960s, including the Beaumont disappearances and the Wanda Beach murders.
Scott William Cox is a suspected American serial killer, convicted on two separate counts of homicide in 1993 in Portland, Oregon, and suspected of many more. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison but was granted parole in 2013, five years early. He currently is serving a post-prison supervision term of life. He is also the prime suspect in 20 unsolved murder cases throughout the United States and Canada, although charges were never brought against him.
The Tynong North and Frankston Murders refers to the deaths of six girls and women who, in the period between May 1980 and October 1981, were taken, murdered, and dumped in remote scrub in the Tynong North and Frankston areas south-east of Melbourne, Australia. Later, the suburb of Frankston came to national attention again as a result of the Frankston serial killings in mid-1993. In 2017, increased rewards were offered for each of the cold cases.
Michele Brown was a 25 year old woman who was found deceased behind a gun shop in Frankston on 14 March 1992. Her cause of death has not been determined, however she is presumed to have been murdered. There is a A$1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of her killer.