A volunteer team using cadaver detection dogs to search for the body of a British child who disappeared in Australia more than 50 years ago has found an area of interest.
The group hopes their finding is a breakthrough in Cheryl Grimmer's case and have reported the location to New South Wales Police, who are now on the scene.
Authorities suspect the three-year-old, who had emigrated from Bristol with her family, was abducted from Fairy Meadow beach in Wollongong in January 1970.
A search will be conducted tomorrow with the assistance of specialist officers as part of ongoing inquiries, police told the BBC in a statement.
Today, bathed in the sun, the beach looks as idyllic as it must have been all those years ago. From the sand dunes, looking inland, the terrain gradually climbs into dense bushland. A small pocket of woodland on the edge of an upmarket suburb could reveal a terrible secret.
Balgownie was mentioned in a confession made by a teenage boy a year after the toddler vanished. However, a judge later disallowed that admission.
In 2019, a trial involving a suspect, known only by the codename Mercury, accused of Cheryl Grimmer's abduction and murder, collapsed. The man, in his 60s, denied any wrongdoing.
Cheryl's brother, Ricki Nash, remarked, This should have been done 55 years ago. My question is, why wasn't it? He has spent a lifetime seeking answers but hopes they won't come from this searcher's work.
As the canine team believes it has made a potential breakthrough in the Grimmer case, Ricki Nash articulated his mixed feelings: If it is Cheryl out there, she has been there for 55 years – she shouldn't have been. His daughter Melanie shared the family's ongoing struggle for closure, saying, I hope the baby girl comes home. The determination of a grieving family remains resolute even after decades of uncertainty.
