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Authors: Megan Norris, Elizabeth Southall
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Flinders Street. Staff at the modelling school could confirm this as Manni often waited for Rachel to finish. They thought he was lovely. And Mike explained that before Christmas Rachel had wanted to buy Manni three special things and had asked Mike to take her to the Reject Shop to see what ‘special things’ her money could buy.
I told the police I had explained to Rachel we would only be able to spend approximately $50 to $80 on her for Christmas because of the cost of the full-time dancing fees. This she had understood.
We were asked about the words ‘running away’.
I didn’t have an answer for this just then. But there would have to be a reasonable explanation.
Can you really blame the police for the position they were taking? At the time I could. I was angry. I felt helpless. But on reflection, and looking at the available hard evidence and the statistics for this age group of missing persons, I know the odds were really stacked against Rachel.
The police were looking for a close. They had searched Rachel’s room in the belief that she was a runaway. That’s how it appeared to us. Again the detective mentioned the police sighting reported the day before.
‘But we asked every shop down the Punt Road end of Bridge Road,’ I said. ‘No one recognised Rachel and no one remembered seeing a girl counting out coins to a blond-haired man.’
The detective said it had happened between 8 and 8.15 a.m.
‘Ah, yes,’ said Mike. ‘But I spoke to workmen who’d been in the street since 7 a.m. and Liz spoke to the milk bar owner.’
A gesture of hands was the detective’s reply. There was enough evidence to suggest Rachel had disappeared of her own free will. She had said she was going with an old female friend . There were no sightings of foul play. There was the detective’s identification. It was obvious – they had discovered things that even we did not know about our own daughter. Clearly she had a secretive nature.
I could not believe what I was hearing.
His advice to us was to go home to our ‘obviously’ two smaller children and seek special counselling. He put the stress on the ‘obviously’.
Seek special counselling, I thought. So that’s it. I started to cry. Not because for one moment I believed Rachel was a runaway, but because I knew she was in trouble and could see the police investigation coming to an end.
Calming down, I said, ‘I’ve brought you these dance pants. They’re the same type Rachel was wearing. I thought you might need them.’
The detective shook his head.
Michael stood up and shook hands with the detectives. He especially thanked the woman detective because he felt that regardless of her opinion, she had always been caring.
We left the station with Mike surprisingly good-tempered. He told the detectives we would still continue with our search and put up more posters.
The detective senior sergeant smiled. He said he would be off duty over the weekend but if we needed a detective there would still be some on duty.
Where to now? Where to now? Everything had come to a standstill. Maybe there would be detectives available over the weekend, but we felt as if we, family and friends, were on our own. Mike’s father had offered us $3000 to pay for a private detective but we still thought this shouldn’t be necessary. We would take up the offer only when no further help was forthcoming from police. A friend suggested we ask the police what they planned to do in the next twenty-four, forty-eight and seventy-two hour periods. We never did. The police would think I was being too much trouble. Maybe we could hire a skywriter and have RACHEL drawn into the sky. At least she’d know we were still searching for her, that we wouldn’t give up until we found her.
On leaving the police station we decided to visit Dulcie from the dance school, who lived near by.
‘Dulcie,’ I said. ‘Please think back to last Monday. Was there anything ?’
‘She was positive all day …
I told the police I had explained to Rachel we would only be able to spend approximately $50 to $80 on her for Christmas because of the cost of the full-time dancing fees. This she had understood.
We were asked about the words ‘running away’.
I didn’t have an answer for this just then. But there would have to be a reasonable explanation.
Can you really blame the police for the position they were taking? At the time I could. I was angry. I felt helpless. But on reflection, and looking at the available hard evidence and the statistics for this age group of missing persons, I know the odds were really stacked against Rachel.
The police were looking for a close. They had searched Rachel’s room in the belief that she was a runaway. That’s how it appeared to us. Again the detective mentioned the police sighting reported the day before.
‘But we asked every shop down the Punt Road end of Bridge Road,’ I said. ‘No one recognised Rachel and no one remembered seeing a girl counting out coins to a blond-haired man.’
The detective said it had happened between 8 and 8.15 a.m.
‘Ah, yes,’ said Mike. ‘But I spoke to workmen who’d been in the street since 7 a.m. and Liz spoke to the milk bar owner.’
A gesture of hands was the detective’s reply. There was enough evidence to suggest Rachel had disappeared of her own free will. She had said she was going with an old female friend . There were no sightings of foul play. There was the detective’s identification. It was obvious – they had discovered things that even we did not know about our own daughter. Clearly she had a secretive nature.
I could not believe what I was hearing.
His advice to us was to go home to our ‘obviously’ two smaller children and seek special counselling. He put the stress on the ‘obviously’.
Seek special counselling, I thought. So that’s it. I started to cry. Not because for one moment I believed Rachel was a runaway, but because I knew she was in trouble and could see the police investigation coming to an end.
Calming down, I said, ‘I’ve brought you these dance pants. They’re the same type Rachel was wearing. I thought you might need them.’
The detective shook his head.
Michael stood up and shook hands with the detectives. He especially thanked the woman detective because he felt that regardless of her opinion, she had always been caring.
We left the station with Mike surprisingly good-tempered. He told the detectives we would still continue with our search and put up more posters.
The detective senior sergeant smiled. He said he would be off duty over the weekend but if we needed a detective there would still be some on duty.
Where to now? Where to now? Everything had come to a standstill. Maybe there would be detectives available over the weekend, but we felt as if we, family and friends, were on our own. Mike’s father had offered us $3000 to pay for a private detective but we still thought this shouldn’t be necessary. We would take up the offer only when no further help was forthcoming from police. A friend suggested we ask the police what they planned to do in the next twenty-four, forty-eight and seventy-two hour periods. We never did. The police would think I was being too much trouble. Maybe we could hire a skywriter and have RACHEL drawn into the sky. At least she’d know we were still searching for her, that we wouldn’t give up until we found her.
On leaving the police station we decided to visit Dulcie from the dance school, who lived near by.
‘Dulcie,’ I said. ‘Please think back to last Monday. Was there anything ?’
‘She was positive all day …
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