Review Sparks Outrage in 1970 Missing Child Case

UPDATE Sep 30, 2025 11:05 AM CDT

The brother of Cheryl Grimmer, a young girl who vanished from an Australian beach in 1970, says he's furious with police for failing to interview witnesses who've gone public in recent years. A four-year review of the 55-year-old cold case has revealed no new information that could lead to a conviction and reward money, per the BBC. Ricki Nash, 62, argues that's because police failed to thoroughly interview a man who claimed to have seen a teenage boy carrying a child away from the changing rooms where Cheryl was last seen. The man told the BBC he had a brief phone call with New South Wales police and that was it. Other witnesses said they had no contact with police. The authorities counter that while not all witnesses are interviewed, all eyewitness accounts are assessed.

Nov 20, 2023 4:39 PM CST

Cheryl Grimmer's family has waited 53 years for answers about her disappearance from a beach in Australia. "I won't sleep until it's over," her brother Ricki said. There's a new glimmer of hope for resolution, after a man told a BBC true crime podcast that he saw a teenage boy carrying a small child away from Fairy Meadow beach on Jan. 12, 1970. The man, who doesn't want to be publicly identified, was 7 at the time. Cheryl was 3. The memory is "etched in my mind," he said, per the BBC. His attention was drawn to the teenager moving "sort of full-stride with this baby in his arm," the man told the podcast. "I heard this screaming of the kid. That's what caught my ear. What was that shrieking sound? I turned around and that's what I saw."

A retired police detective who worked on the case in 2016 said this is the first person to claim to have seen a teenage boy apparently taking a child that day. After speaking to the man, Damian Loone called the account compelling. "He sounded very credible to me," Loone said. New South Wales police are in contact with the potential witness, per the BBC. Promising leads have fallen apart over the years. There had been reports of a young man seen with a toddler, and a suspect who was a teenager at the time was charged. That case collapsed, per News.com.au. Police announced a $1 million reward—about $650,000 US—for information leading to a conviction in 2020, the 50th anniversary of the Cheryl's disappearance.