Cheryl Grimmer went missing on a beach in Australia.
The January 12, 1970 Cheryl Grimmerwho was three at the time, spent the morning on the beach of Prato delle fatein Australia, with his mother and siblings.
at two p.m, Carole, the mother, he warned that heavy rain was coming and looked for his children -Ricki (7), Stephen (5), Paul (4) and little Cheryl- return home.
Before leaving, the slogan was that the children remove the sand in the showers of the place. Meanwhile, the mother collected the beach items.
Cheryl Grimmer was last seen in the 1970 New South Wales police photo.
The brothers in that second were divided. Cheryl went to the women’s locker room by herself. As it took her, Ricki began to insist from the door. She replied that she didn’t want to go out.
A few minutes passed and he, angry, went where his mother had to tell him. Without delay, Carole went to the shower stall. But Cheryl was gone.
They started looking for her. They weren’t successful. Despair began to grow. Already in the middle of the afternoon she was looking for a telephone to communicate with the police. She also contacted Vince, her husband of hers, who worked in the Navy, to come to the scene.
Soon researchers and volunteers arrived. Some witnesses said they saw a man grab a little girl and run away with her wrapped in a white towel.
the fragile traces
As usual in these cases, the testimonies concerned were not long in appearing.
A few days later a note arrived asking for $ 10,000 to return Cheryl unharmed. They took the money, but the alleged kidnapper didn’t show up.
A year and a half later a local teenager confessed to kidnapping her, attempting to rape her and strangling her. He provided the details of the scene.
Investigators went with him there. Once there, the young man began to feel insecure. The owner of the property, however, contradicted the statements of the offending car. With which, his confession was discarded.
In 2020, the Cheryl Grimmer data reward claim was reprinted Photo: NSW Police.
The impact on the media
The case was becoming more important every day on television, radio and newspapers. Although this didn’t bring out more data. With this scenario, the problem was blocked.
The police offered increasingly attractive rewards. However, nothing was working out.
At the beginning of this millennium, Australian police assumed that both Cheryl and her kidnapper may have been dead. Even if they reprinted the rewards to get to the truth.
The Grimmers, after Cheryl
At the time of the child’s disappearance, Carole was 26 and Vince, 24.
The family had recently emigrated from Britain in search of better job prospects.
At the moment of greatest exposure, they returned to their land. But then they went back to their new place.
They both kept their hopes of finding it alive and dedicated their lives to making it happen.
In 2004 Vincenzo died. He was 58 and his daughter’s case had disrupted her career and his life. Carole died at 70, having never lowered her arms.
The Daily Mirror newspaper with Cheryl Grimmer’s mother’s request.
A case still open
Despite the years, the alleged tips for getting to the truth have not stopped appearing.
In 2008 a woman with the same physiognomy and the same age she would have been cheryl Claimed to be the missing girl. DNA testing ruled out the option. And the family’s disappointment has increased.
In 2011, on her 45th birthday, Cheryl was officially declared dead.
But shortly after the investigation was reopened. They offered $ 100,000 for reliable data.
A few years later the file was left in the hands of detective Frank Sanvitale, who devoted himself to obsessively reviewing the information available. The focus of him was the confession of the young man who claimed to have killed her in 1971 and whose traces were discarded.
The statement has been revised it was noted that it had precisions which have been neglected.
They also searched for the testimony of witnesses and coincided with the story of the young man who indicted himself.
Investigators searched for him and found that he resided in Melbourne. But the defendant pleaded not guilty and denied having been to Fairy Beach that day.
His name was never revealed. Although it is assumed that he is over 65 and that he arrived in Australia ten years before the crime.
The defense also claimed that the defendant had a mental illness.
Exhausted by so much effort, after 21 years with the case, Sanvitale resigned from the investigation team.
In early 2020, 50 years after Cheryl’s disappearance, New South Wales police reactivated the argument.by offering a $ 700,000 reward for anyone who provides reliable clues or data.
Cheryl Grimmer’s parents never stopped looking for her New South Wales police photo.
Sadness without deadline
On the other hand, Ricki, the eldest son of the family, is already old and yet he could not shake off the weight of that fatality.
“Every day we remember the tragic way our sister was taken away from us and we hope this new reward will do justice. Also, she said that her father chided her for leaving her there“.
While Stephen, the second of the siblings, was accused in 2016 of inappropriate sexual behavior with a child under the age of 14and was arrested for these facts.
Speaking of his sister, Stephen said “this is something you never recover from. Always on my mind”.
Source: Clarin
