Cold Cases in Australia
ColdCaseIndex documents 15 cases in Australia, dated 1948 to 2021. 6 are recorded as unsolved. The earliest is Somerton Man (1948) and the most recent is Cleo Smith (2021).
Regions covered: New South Wales (3), South Australia (2), Victoria (1), Queensland (1), Northern Territory (1).
By type
All Australia cases
Cleo Smith
Four-year-old Cleo Smith was taken from her family's tent at the Blowholes campsite north of Carnarvon, Western Australia, on October 16, 2021. Police found her alive 18 days later, on November 3, in a locked house in Carnarvon.
William Tyrrell
Three-year-old William Tyrrell disappeared from his foster grandmother's home on Benaroon Drive in Kendall, New South Wales, on the morning of September 12, 2014, while wearing a Spider-Man suit.
Jill Meagher
Jill Meagher, a 29-year-old Irish-born ABC Radio Melbourne employee, was raped and murdered while walking home along Sydney Road in Brunswick, Melbourne, in the early hours of September 22, 2012.
Daniel Morcombe
Thirteen-year-old Daniel Morcombe disappeared while waiting for a bus at Woombye on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on December 7, 2003.
Peter Falconio
British backpacker Peter Falconio, 28, was shot on the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek in Australia's Northern Territory on July 14, 2001; his girlfriend Joanne Lees escaped.
Marion Barter
Australian schoolteacher Marion Barter secretly changed her name before vanishing during an overseas trip. She legally became 'Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel' before disappearing.
Claremont Serial Murders
Three women vanished from the upscale suburb of Claremont in Perth, Australia between 1996-1997. Telstra technician Bradley Edwards was convicted of two murders in 2020.
Ivan Milat (Backpacker Murders)
Seven backpackers aged 19 to 22, from Australia, Germany and Britain, disappeared while hitchhiking from Sydney between December 1989 and April 1992; their bodies were found in the Belanglo State Forest in 1992 and 1993.
Scott Johnson
American mathematician Scott Johnson, 27, was found dead below the North Head cliffs at Manly, Sydney, on December 10, 1988. First ruled a suicide, his death was found by a 2017 inquest to have resulted from a gay-hate attack.
Mr. Cruel Victims
An unidentified offender known as 'Mr Cruel' attacked three girls in Melbourne between 1987 and 1990, abducting two of them from their homes and later releasing them.
Lynette Dawson
Lynette Dawson vanished from her Sydney home. Her husband Chris Dawson, a former rugby league player and teacher, was convicted of her murder in 2022 after the podcast 'The Teacher's Pet' revived interest.
Cheryl Grimmer
Three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer disappeared from outside a shower block at Fairy Meadow Beach, Wollongong, on January 12, 1970, and has never been found.
Beaumont Children
Three siblings—Jane (9), Arnna (7), and Grant Beaumont (4)—vanished from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, Australia on Australia Day 1966.
Christine Sharrock & Marianne Schmidt
Fifteen-year-old friends Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt of West Ryde were killed at Wanda Beach, near Cronulla in Sydney, on January 11, 1965. Their bodies were found partly buried in the sandhills the next day.
Somerton Man
An unidentified man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia with a scrap of paper reading 'Tamám Shud' (meaning 'ended' in Persian) hidden in his pocket.