Cheryl Grimmer was just three years old when she disappeared from a beach in Australia in 1970 – her family have been searching for answers ever since, and her brother revealed a painful truth
The brother of Cheryl Grimmer, the British three-year-old who mysteriously disappeared, made a heartbreaking admission from the day he lost his little sister.
The Grimmer family, including parents Carole and Vince and Cheryl, along with her three brothers, Ricki, Stephen, and Paul, had made a significant move from their home in Bristol to start a new life in Australia in 1968. It was supposed to be an exciting new chapter for the family, but less than two years later, Cheryl, who was just three at the time, went missing.
On January 12 1970, Cheryl had been enjoying a morning at the beach with her mum and three brothers, while their dad, Vince, was away serving in the Australian army. By 1.30pm, under the blazing sun, mum Carole decided it was time for them to head home.
READ MORE: British toddler Cheryl Grimmer’s final moments before disappearing on family beach dayREAD MORE: ‘Docs told me to change bra over breast lump – then I got devastating diagnosis’
The four children all went to the shower block while their mum packed up their belongings from their morning at the seaside. Ricki, Cheryl’s older brother, who was seven at the time, went to tell their mum that his sister wouldn’t come out of the shower cubicle.
Just moments later, by the time Carole got to the scene to collect her daughter and head home, the little girl had disappeared. The family experienced a moment of sheer panic, and Carole made the harrowing journey to the nearest house to call the police, as there was no phone at the Fairy Meadow beach.
Authorities initiated a large-scale search operation, and various theories were pursued, but little Cheryl was never found. The loss of the three-year-old has haunted the family for 55 years, including her brother, Ricki.
His decision to go and tell their mum that Cheryl wasn’t coming out of the shower block is a difficult memory he’s had to live with ever since. Ricki recalls his actions that day as “crystal clear” and remembers persuading their mum to take them for a day at the seaside.
Ricki previously confessed to The Australian: “I just didn’t want to go into the ladies’ toilets.
“That’s when I made the fatal mistake of leaving and going to get my mother.”
He also revealed how his parents, who have since passed away, never recovered from Cheryl’s disappearance and never found out what happened to their little girl. Ricki admitted: “I can remember the beatings I copped – the hatred my father had for me because he blamed me for leaving her.
“And he’s right – I shouldn’t have left.”
Ricki has vowed to continue his parents’ fight to uncover the truth about what really happened to Cheryl.
In a development last week, the family issued an ultimatum to ‘Mercury’, a local teenager, who previously claimed to have killed Cheryl all those years ago. They demanded that he reveal to the family how he knew details contained in his confession or face being publicly named.
Known only as Mercury due to his age, he allegedly admitted to the crime during police questioning in the early 1970s, claiming that he had “intended to have sexual intercourse” with her before carrying out the murder. Despite this admission, there was insufficient evidence to charge the young man, and the investigation was ultimately closed.
The family’s hopes were rekindled when the case was reopened in 2016, with Mercury being arrested and charged the following year. He pleaded not guilty to Cheryl’s murder in September last year.
Despite being scheduled to stand trial, which would have brought an end to nearly 50 years of torment for Cheryl’s family, the case was thrown out, and his 1970s interviews were ruled inadmissible.
But this week, Australian parliamentarian Jeremy Buckingham read out Mercury’s real name – still legally shielded because he was a minor at the time – along with his teenage confession, demanding a fresh investigation into Cheryl’s murder.
“The family of Cheryl Grimmer have been through so much anguish over such a long period of time,” he said.
“[Mercury] is a free man living with his identity suppressed from his neighbours and no one has been punished for Cheryl Grimmer’s abduction and murder.”