An Australian politician has identified a man alleged to have confessed to the abduction and murder of three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer, who disappeared from Fairy Meadow Beach 55 years ago. The revelation has reignited calls for a renewed police investigation into one of the country’s most haunting cold cases.
Cheryl Grimmer vanished on 12 January 1970 while at the beach near Wollongong, New South Wales, with her mother and three brothers. Despite extensive searches and decades of inquiry, her body has never been found.
During a parliamentary session, NSW MP Jeremy Buckingham used parliamentary privilege to name the man believed to have confessed to the toddler’s murder in 1971, a year after her disappearance. The alleged confession, made when the suspect was 17 years old, described in detail how he abducted Cheryl from the changing area, took her to nearby sand hills, and later strangled her before covering her body with leaves and dirt.
The man was charged in 2017 after police reopened the case in 2016 and discovered his confession in old records. However, the trial collapsed in 2019 when the court ruled the confession inadmissible, applying modern child-interview protection laws retrospectively. This decision effectively ended the prosecution, leaving Cheryl’s family without justice or closure.
Mr Buckingham, reading the alleged confession aloud in parliament, urged authorities to reopen the investigation, arguing that the family had endured decades of pain and uncertainty. He emphasized that the suspect remains free, living under legal name suppression, while Cheryl’s family continues to seek answers about her fate.
The MP’s actions have sparked widespread public debate about transparency, justice for historical crimes, and the limits of name suppression in cases involving serious allegations. Many have called on police to review the available evidence using modern investigative tools, including DNA and digital forensics, in hopes of finding new leads.
For Cheryl Grimmer’s family, the latest revelation offers both renewed hope and anguish — a reminder that despite the passage of time, the search for truth and accountability continues.
The case stands as one of Australia’s most tragic unsolved mysteries, symbolizing both the advances and limitations of the justice system in addressing crimes committed decades ago.
