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Former detective reveals how 'police failed WA teen murder victim'

A former crime squad detective said the murder of a Western Australian teenager could have been solved 18 years earlier had the police not shut down the inquiry as early as they did.

Francis John Wark, 61, was on Monday convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Hayley Dodd after she disappeared on July 29, 1999.

Despite the verdict, former major crime squad Detective Sergeant Edward Rowe said he is angry it took nearly two decades to bring justice to the family, especially after he identified Wark as a suspect in the days after Hayley’s disappearance.

He said had the investigation not been downgraded to a missing persons case by more senior officers, a crucial piece of evidence would not have gone unnoticed for 14 years.

A WA Supreme Court judge has found Francis John Wark guilty of murdering teenager Hayley Dodd in 1999. Source: AAP
A WA Supreme Court judge has found Francis John Wark guilty of murdering teenager Hayley Dodd in 1999. Source: AAP


Francis John Wark, 61, was on Monday convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Hayley Dodd after she disappeared on July 29, 1999. Source: 7 News
Francis John Wark, 61, was on Monday convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Hayley Dodd after she disappeared on July 29, 1999. Source: 7 News

That evidence was an ear-ring, matching the description of one Hayley was wearing when she disappeared.

It was found in a car seat cover that had been seized from Wark’s ute in 1999. It would go onto sit unnoticed in evidence until 2013.

“When (the 2013 inquiry team) told me they had found the ear-ring, you could have knocked me over with a feather,” Mr Rowe told The West.

“If we had the ear-ring at the time, it would have told me straight away she (Hayley) was in that ute and that would have told us we now have a red-hot suspect,” Mr Rowe said.

Margaret Dodd, the mother of murdered teenager Hayley Dodd, speaking with reporters outside the WA Supreme Court last October. Source: AAP
Margaret Dodd, the mother of murdered teenager Hayley Dodd, speaking with reporters outside the WA Supreme Court last October. Source: AAP


Det Sgt Rowe said he is angry it took 18 years to bring justice to the family. Source: 7 News
Det Sgt Rowe said he is angry it took 18 years to bring justice to the family. Source: 7 News

“It still makes me angry that we had to wait this length of time to bring justice to the family.”

Mr Rowe said he believed a shortage of resources was responsible for their investigation, based on Moora police station being shut down.

“When you are told by your bosses that it needs to come back and it is coming back, you pack up your chattels and you come back to town.”

Wark will be sentenced in Perth next Tuesday.