Cheryl Grimmer vanished 55 years ago after leaving Fairy Meadow Beach, Wollongong and has never been seen again
A retired senior detective who worked on the case of a British[1] girl who dramatically vanished in Australia[2] over 50 years ago has urged the man who once confessed to her murder to “walk into a police station and tell the truth”. It comes as a fresh search begins for three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer’s remains.
Cheryl was never seen again after leaving Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong in January 1970, sparking one of Australia’s longest running missing children cases. Five years ago the Mirror visited the beach[3] and reported on the ongoing inquiries as a memorial plaque was unveiled to mark Cheryl’s disappearance.
For the first time, a search is being conducted on a stretch of land in Wollongong linked to a 1971 confession by a man known under the police[4] codename “Mercury.”
His identity has never been released because he was 17 at the time of the alleged crime. The confession, rich in details about fence lines, cattle grids and the type of tree he left the body near, was dismissed at the time as unreliable and police never searched the site.
Detective Senior Constable Frank Sanvitale was later asked to revisit the case. Standing at the river bed being searched, Mr Sanvitale recalled a phone call that still played in his mind – “Mercury” telling him he regretted what he did every day.
He urged the man to finally come forward and tell the truth. “Give Cheryl’s family some peace, give yourself some peace too,” Mr Sanvitale said.
“I think it’s time for you to come clean, mate, walk into a police station and tell them what you did that day. I truly believe one day he’ll be standing in front of his maker and have to answer. But before then — mate — walk into a police station and tell them what you did.”
His team uncovered the confession in police archives and began piecing it together with fresh information. In 2017, they charged the man with Cheryl’s murder, but the case collapsed in 2018 when the Supreme Court ruled the confession inadmissible.
In 1971, police were legally permitted to question a minor without a parent or lawyer present, a practice outlawed years later, with the change applied retrospectively to “Mercury’s” case.
The site being searched was farmland in 1970 but has since been surrounded by suburban houses. Volunteer search organisers said their cadaver dogs[5] have a proven record of locating human remains more than 50 years old.
Cheryl’s brother Ricki Nash, who was seven when she disappeared, has been at the search site. He said it was work the police should have done decades ago.
“This is a search that should have been done 55 years ago, when “Mercury” confessed in detail, details only the person responsible would know,” he said.
“Why police didn’t do it then, and now it’s volunteers with the expertise. I’m just in shock, but as this search will prove today, you can still find something in the soil, the leaves, the roots of trees and bushes from 55 years ago.”
Mr Nash said the community still remembered the tragedy. He said they left tributes on a plaque dedicated to his sister on the 50th anniversary of her disappearance in 2020.
“People leave flowers, teddy bears, toys,” he said. “But we deserve answers as a family, and authorities just don’t want those answers heard.”
A New South Wales MP has raised with the family the possibility of using parliamentary privilege to name the man and place his full confession on the public record, a step Mr Nash called “a last resort” that could happen within weeks.
Chris D’Arcy, president of Search Dogs Sydney, said it was the first time the location described in Mercury’s confession has been formally searched. We mapped the area with drones in 3D to preserve the integrity of the scene,” he said
“We’ve got two cadaver dogs trained to look for long-term missing persons[6]. Our dogs have previously discovered remains over 50 years old. A single trained dog and drone team can equal the work of 140 people on a search.”