Disappearance of Trudie Adams
1978 missing person case in Australia
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Trudie Jeanette Adams disappeared in the early hours of 25 June 1978 after attending a dance at the Newport Surf Life Saving Club, New South Wales, Australia. She left the event early before hitchhiking home, at which point she entered a vehicle on Barrenjoey Road and has not been seen since. Her disappearance sparked New South Wales' biggest missing person search at the time,[3] attracted extensive and ongoing national media attention, and eventually a $250,000 reward.[4][5]
19 September 1959
Newport, New South Wales, Australia
Trudie Adams | |
|---|---|
| Born | Trudie Jeanette Adams 19 September 1959 |
| Disappeared | 25 June 1978 (aged 18) Newport, New South Wales, Australia |
| Status | Missing for 48 years, 1 month and 18 days[1][2] |
Disappearance and investigation
Trudie Adams' parents and ex-boyfriend, Steven Norris, reported her missing on 25 June 1978 after she failed to arrive home from the dance.[6] Although police initially believed that the car she entered was a green Kombi van, Norris, as the main eyewitness, stated that he saw her enter a light-coloured 1977 Holden panel van.[7][8] Police who investigated the case originally cast suspicion on Norris. Eventually he was cleared, and suspicion widened to those involved in the drug scene.[9]
In the days after the attacks, a number of female rape victims, who had been assaulted by two disguised men, began to report a series of then-unknown crimes to police. Investigators then suspected that Adams' disappearance was linked to the 14 now-known violent rapes that had occurred in the Northern Beaches between 1971 and 1978,[10][11] and may also be related to an attempted attack on a hitchhiker earlier on the evening of Adams' disappearance.[12] On 16 August 1978, a reward of $20,000 was offered by the New South Wales government,[3] and over the years her suspected murder has been investigated by police four times.[3][11]
Developments
- In 1992, the case was reopened based on a refocused interest in the possible involvement of the green Kombi van.[13]
- In 2008, the reward was raised to $250,000 for information which would lead to the conviction of her murderer(s).[14]
- In 2009, the case's prime suspect, a convicted drug dealer and sex offender known as Neville Brian Tween, who was identified by some of the rape victims, was finally interviewed by police regarding Adams' disappearance.[11] Tween, who had also been a police informant,[15] denied any involvement in the disappearance or the rape cases (despite circumstantial evidence) and died in 2013.[16]
- In 2011, an inquest was held in order to further investigate the disappearance of Adams, which resulted in the Coroner declaring that Adams died of "homicide or misadventure."[17]
- In 2018, interest in the case was reignited by the airing of the second series of the Australian crime podcast Unravel[18] and TV documentary Barrenjoey Road.[19][20] A number of non-reported crimes and previously unknown victims have also come forward due to the airing of the podcast.[21]