When former Illawarra Mercury journalist Geoff Failes spoke to Cheryl Grimmer’s parents the evening after she vanished, an empty spot at the family dinner table was a heartbreaking reminder of a little girl lost.
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“The day after she disappeared, I went to speak to the family who had migrated from England and were staying in the Nissen huts at the Fairy Meadow hostel,’’ Mr Failes said.
‘’I remember they were sitting at the dinner table, and there was one empty space at the end – it was very sad. I remember her mother just saying ‘Please find my baby’.’’
The case was one of the most ‘’horrible’’ Mr Failes had to cover in his 30-year career, and he was ‘’sickened’’ to learn this week that Cheryl may have died within an hour of her disappearance. In his early twenties at the time, he was among a team of journalists and photographers who rushed to Fairy Meadow beach after the alarm was raised.
“I remember going out there that night – hundreds of people turned up to search for her, it seemed like half of Wollongong was there,’’ he said.
‘’People were combing through the beach and bush, and even searching the sea, in case she’d gone into the water and drowned.
‘’It was just awful. We were all shocked and devastated and couldn’t believe that a three-year-old girl could disappear without a trace.’’
Mr Failes said there’d been a number of theories about Cheryl’s disappearance over the years.
‘’It’s staggering that after all this time an arrest has been made,’’ he said.
‘’It’s been one of Australia’s largest cold cases.’’