Shock twist as toddler's accused killer walks free
It was a mystery that shocked Australia half a century ago.
And on Friday, there was a new twist in the complex case involving the 1970 disappearance of toddler Cheryl Grimmer.
The man accused of her murder has walked free before his trial even started, leaving the little girl’s family devastated.
The suspect, who cannot be identified, had been behind bars for almost two years.
He was accused of snatching Grimmer, strangling the three-year-old and burying her in bushland in January 1970.
“We’re just a bit numb, a bit shocked at the moment. There’s no words,” Ricki Grimmer, Cheryl’s brother, told ABC News.
Mr Grimmer and his younger brothers, Paul and Steven, had taken their little sister to a shower block at Fairy Meadow Beach, in Wollongong on the day she disappeared.
They waited, but she never came out. By the time their mother went in, Cheryl was gone.
She was never seen again.
“No words can describe how I feel at the moment. Obviously lots of terrible things are going through my head at this moment,” Mr Grimmer said.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
The prosecution case collapsed on Friday as the judge ruled the key piece of evidence was inadmissible.
Prosecutors told the judge they would no longer proceed with the case.
Justice Robert Hulme told the man he was free to go.
The case hinged on the alleged confession the then 17-year-old made to his role in the disappearance, a piece of evidence prosecutors relied on.
“It comes back to how the actual evidence was obtained from a juvenile who I understand didn’t have a support person present,” lawyer Paul McGirr said.
Mr Grimmer revealed his devastation over the decision.
“Cheryl was our sister, she’s our life,” he said.
“She’e everything, always has been. Sometimes for the wrong reasons.”
