A man who may have witnessed the abduction of a three-year-old girl on a NSW beach decades ago has spoken out about what he saw on the day she went missing.
Cheryl Grimmer disappeared on January 12, 1970, outside a shower block at Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong where she had been spending the day with her mother and three brothers.
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It is suspected Cheryl, whose family had recently migrated from the UK, was abducted and murdered.
A BBC investigation and podcast that is currently examining the case interviewed a new eyewitness who says he saw a child being carried away on the day Cheryl went missing.
“I heard sort of yelling and screaming. I look around, glanced behind me and I see, I don’t know, 15, 16-year-old, adult sort of thing, not a kid … in sort of full stride with this baby in his arm, at his hip,” the man told the Fairy Meadow podcast.
“Like he was holding her by the hip, and she was sort of thrashing with her legs.”
The witness was aged seven at the time and had migrated to Australia from Europe.
Former Homicide Detective Damian Loone said he spoke to the man and believed his information was important.
“I can understand the reasons why he didn’t come forward at the time,” Loone said.
“He couldn’t speak or understand English.”
NSW Police detectives have spoken to the new witness, but he is yet to be formally interviewed.
Cheryl’s brother Ricki Nash said the witness’ account sounded “pretty compelling”.
A 2011 coronial inquest found Cheryl had died but the manner of her death remained undetermined, and recommended the case be referred for further investigation.
Her body has never been found.
A $1 million reward for information in the case remains outstanding.
– With Evan Batten