Australia Australia - Niamh Maye, 18, Snowy Mountains, Batlow to Cootamundra, then to Sydney, Easter 2002

[dotr]

August 2 2020
Renewed call for help to solve cold case disappearance after 18 years
''Niamh Maye should be celebrating her 36th birthday this year, but she hasn't been seen in nearly two decades.

Niamh Maye should be celebrating her 36th birthday this year, but she hasn't been seen in nearly two decades. (Supplied)
On Easter Saturday, 2002, the then-18-year-old had been fruit-picking with friends in the Snowy Mountains. She was booked to catch a bus north from Batlow to Cootamundra and then a train to Sydney, to spend Easter with her family. But she never showed up.
Detectives hit a wall in their investigation, and no one has ever been charged.
"I was only 20 at the time and I think I had some naive optimism that maybe we would still find her, but realistically we knew immediately when she didn't get on that bus that something had gone wrong," Niamh's sister, Fionnuala Hagerty, said.''

"No matter how insignificant: something you heard, something you saw, something that's just bothered you," Ms Hagerty said. "We just want to bring her home – or bring her remains home, and give her the farewell that she deserves."
As police launch National Missing Persons Week, they're just as determined as ever to find answers.''

 

[Mel 1303]

NoCookies | The Australian
The DNA tests were arranged after Hagerty inquired with NSW police about a new program aiming to solve some of Australia’s toughest missing person cases.

The National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons was unveiled by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton this month, with almost $3.6m in funding from the proceeds of crime — the luxury homes, sports cars and bank accounts of drug traffickers and other offenders being returned to the community in a meaningful way.


Her family reported her missing to police, then after a week of their own frantic inquiries reached Jason Nicklason, a fellow fruit picker and new acquaintance.

Nicklason said he gave Niamh a lift from a Jingellic camping ground on Easter Saturday and dropped her off on the roadside near Tumut in the Snowy Mountains, and that she planned to hitchhike the rest of the way to Sydney.

“Pretty much as soon as we all heard that, we just knew that something had gone very wrong,” says Hagerty, 39. “We don‘t believe that she ever would have hitchhiked.”

Seven months later, Nicklason was arrested for the rape and violent assault of a woman in Brisbane and, as police escorted him to collect some belongings, jumped to his death from a building. It left nothing but questions.

 

[Mel 1303]

Victoria Cafasso was murdered in a still unsolved crime at Beaumaris Beach, Tasmania in 1995. Although probably unrelated, Nicklason was 25 at this time, and grew up less than an hour away.

 

[dotr]

https://www.fm929.com.au/post/missing-person-s-week-highlights-local-cold-case
Oct 12 2020
Police this week renewed their appeal for information on the disappearance of Armidale teen Niamh Maye who went missing from Jingellic campground on Saturday 30th March 2002.

Niamh Maye’s father, Brian Maye, remembered his daughter as a happy and creative young woman with a great sense of humour.


“Niamh is always with us in spirit and we will always honour the 18 years she filled us with her brightness,” Mr Maye said.


“Not a day goes by we don’t think of Niamh and the life she would have lived. We miss our beautiful, loving, cheeky, fun daughter, sister and aunt"

 

[boomburger]

Australian true crime podcast Casefile will be doing a series on this case. (Missing Niamh | The disappearance of teenager Niamh Maye, missing since 2002)

One of the two men she hitchhiked with (and was last seen with) was a violent man who was arrested on a sexual assault charge only months after Niamh went missing, and ultimately he killed himself before his interrogation.

A missing woman who was last seen by an accused rapist, it seems the most likely scenario is staring us all in the face but without evidence this case is destined to be unsolved.

 

[dotr]

WOLTER PEETERS/SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Brian and Anne Maye's 18-year-old daughter Niamh disappeared 20 years ago.
Mar 27 2022
Our daughter’s gap year turned into a chasm: The family haunted by a 20-year mystery | Stuff.co.nz
''Niamh Maye aged 18 last spoke to her family 20 years ago today.

Niamh (Irish, pronounced Nieve) had been picking apples with friends Jess and Brodie camping at Batlow Caravan Park near Tumut in southern NSW, Australia, to earn casual money on a gap year. A talented student with high HSC results, she had a place at UTS to study film production.
The youngest of six sisters and a brother, she’d planned to head home to Armidale via Sydney for Easter.
She didn’t arrive. The gap turned into a chasm.''

''Twenty years ago, her parents, Anne and Brian, posed with for a photo in the Herald appealing for information. They have made 15 trips from Armidale to Tumut conducting searches with a metal detector.''

“She called to let me know the CountryLink bus she had reserved for the following day had been on-sold because she hadn’t got back into Batlow to pay for it in time,” she said. “She booked the next available ticket on Easter Sunday.” (March 31, 2002)

Two men, Jason “Jack” Nicklason and Garth Gemmell arrived earlier at the campsite in a 1969 black Holden hearse. Friend Brodie had headed to Victoria and Jess headed to Byron Bay. Jess – Jessica Ribeiro a Melbourne-based musician – told the Herald how she grew up in Armidale with Niamh. She describes her as petite, fearless, outspoken, creative and confident.''

''Six months later, Nicklason, who claimed to have dropped Niamh off near Tumut, was in police custody having been arrested in Brisbane for raping a 19-year-old woman. He then took his life.

But the investigation continued. Ten years later in 2012, there was an inquest in Glen Innes before Coroner Hugh Dillon. The officer in charge delivered an entirely new theory revealing in shocking detail the apparent location and manner of Niamh’s death, yet there have been no new searches and no arrests.

The court recorded that Niamh “died on or about March 30, possibly March 31st 2002 and that her death took place somewhere in the vicinity of Tumut”.

''A website missingniamh.com was launched by the family on March 27 and a podcast “Missing Niamh” will be launched later this year.''

 

[dotr]

March 27 2022

Missing Persons' Week: Search for Armidale's Niamh Maye continues after 18 years since Riverina disappearance | The Armidale Express | Armidale, NSW

Niamh MAYE (australianmissingpersonsregister.com)

The Missing: Niamh Maye. Our Daughter on Apple Podcasts

 

[StillDiggin]

On the day Niamh would have turned 40, police offer $250k in push to solve decades-old mystery

Niamh Maye was 18 years old when she disappeared from a country town in NSW in 2002. With her family still desperate for answers, police are hoping a large reward will encourage someone to come forward.

www.abc.net.au

 

[dotr]

On the day Niamh would have turned 40, police offer $250k in push to solve decades-old mystery

Niamh Maye was 18 years old when she disappeared from a country town in NSW in 2002. With her family still desperate for answers, police are hoping a large reward will encourage someone to come forward.

www.abc.net.au

By Penny Burfitt
Posted 9h ago9 hours ago, updated 6h ago

''New South Wales Police are offering a $250,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction or the recovery of the remains of a teenager who disappeared in the state's south more than two decades ago.

Key points:​

• Niamh Maye's family say they "desperately want to find her and lay her to rest" with dignity
• A man who was wanted in connection with her disappearance died in custody in Queensland
• Police say "the smallest amount of information" could help them solve the mystery

Niamh Maye was 18 years old when she was last seen on Saturday, March 30 2002 in Jingellic, in the state's Riverina region.

A 2012 coronial inquiry found she died at or near Tumut on March 30 that year and police believe she met with foul play.

Riverina Police Superintendent Andrew Spliet said the reward was announced today to coincide with Ms Maye's 40th birthday.''