Frustration Mounts as Family Seeks Justice for Disappeared Toddler Cheryl Grimmer

Wed Oct 22 2025 01:52:48 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Cheryl Grimmer's family expressed anger over police's failure to interview potential eyewitnesses in her decades-old disappearance case, amidst renewed calls for justice.

The Grimmer family is disheartened as New South Wales police review of the 1970 disappearance of three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer yields no new leads. Despite eyewitness testimonies emerging after a podcast, police have not interviewed the witnesses, prompting frustration from the family and calls for a detailed inquiry into the case.

The family of a toddler who disappeared from an Australian beach more than 50 years ago has criticized police for not formally interviewing potential eyewitnesses during a review of the case.

Officers suspect three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer was abducted from Fairy Meadow beach, about 50 miles south of Sydney, when she went missing on January 12, 1970. The Grimmer family had only just emigrated from the UK.

They have now been told the review, which took four years to complete, has not brought up any new evidence that could lead to a conviction.

They are angry that three potential eyewitnesses who spoke to the BBC were not formally interviewed by officers, despite their contact details being passed to police.

Ricki Nash, Cheryl's brother, said he felt total frustration about the way the review had been handled, which he understood was meant to be a detailed, full review of the case.

There are no words, just nothing, he said of the decision not to formally interview the potential eyewitnesses. Our family can't move forward without the help of the police.

The three potential eyewitnesses came forward after the BBC aired the Fairy Meadow true crime podcast in 2022, which has since been downloaded five million times.

One man, who asked to keep his identity private, said he had seen a teenage boy carrying away a small child from changing rooms beside the beach on the day Cheryl disappeared.

The man said he had a brief chat over the phone with NSW Police after telling the BBC about what he saw, but did not hear from the force again.

Damian Loone, a retired detective who worked on Cheryl's case, said he believed the man's testimony was very credible.

In 2017, a man in his 60s was charged with Cheryl's abduction and murder after officers discovered a confession made to police by a teenage boy in 1971. A judge ruled the confession could not be presented as evidence during trial.

Police said all information received, including potential eyewitness accounts, was properly assessed, and decisions regarding subsequent action were made in accordance with investigative standards.

In response to a petition asking for an inquiry into missing persons investigations, the state's minister for police made no commitment to hold one, leaving Cheryl’s family still seeking answers and justice for their lost daughter.