Australia Australia - Rose Howell, 18, New South Wales, 11 April 2003 *reward*

imstilla.grandma

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Police are offering $750,000 for information that leads to an arrest over the 2003 disappearance of New South Wales teen Rose Howell.

Howell was just 18 at the time she vanished, and though a coroner found that "it's likely" she died, the circumstances surrounding her death remain unknown.

She was last seen at approximately 6.15pm on Friday April 11, 2003, walking east along Perrys Road in Repton, in the general direction of her home in Bundagen - about 25km south of Coffs Harbour.

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Howell's mother, Malila, understood the teen had plans to meet friends in Bellingen that evening.

It wasn't uncommon for her to spend the night at a friends' house and Howell "was excited" to celebrate her upcoming birthday party.

Two days after she was last seen, Howell was officially reported missing after she failed to return home and meet her mother for an appointment
 
Rose lived in a commune accessed through Repton at the time called Bundagen.
 

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Malila last saw Rose on April 11, 2003, when she left their home at Bundagen, south of Coffs Harbour, to go to Bellingen and reported her missing two days later after she failed to return for an appointment.

In 2012, a coronial inquest came to the conclusion she had most likely died, but it was unclear how her death had occurred.

“There could be people 20 years later who could possibly know what happened to the girl with the mohawk,” she said on Monday at the announcement of the reward.
The 18-year-old was excitedly planning her birthday party at the time of her disappearance, police said.

“People around here knew who she was, even if they didn’t know what her name was. She kind of stood out.”

Howell’s father died six years ago without knowing what happened to his daughter.

“It hurts still 20 years later,” Malila said.

“I see somebody I go, oh, that could be Rose. I still have this kind of feeling that she’s just going to walk around the corner one day and reappear. That’s a hope I have deep inside, it’s quite hard to accept that. All the time there’s this anguish in life.”
 
I’ve done a bit of reading into Roses case. It’s tragic. One of the most interesting aspects I gathered from the coroners inquest report was the last known sighting of rose According to the coroner.
I think it was a person called Mr Robb who was picking his daughter up in Raleigh, and around 5pm he saw who he believed was Rose sitting on a wooden bench next to Perry’s Hill Lookout. I believe this bench to be an non marked bus stop for the bus into Repton (which I think only went sporadically on weekends, not weekdays).

over an hour later Mr Robb was driving back with his daughter And saw a car parked at the lookout. He then drove around 100 meters and saw the same girl as earlier from the bus stop, again, he believed this was rose. He said she didn’t look like she was seeking a lift and he drove around her and kept going.

it’s interesting because he saw her walking easterly from the wooden bench, that’s the direction towards Bundagen where Rose lived. Now, obviously there’s a car within a short distance of rose that wasn’t there an hour earlier. could this mean something? Maybe, maybe not, certainly suspicious.

but if it had nothing to do with Roses disappearance, i assume rose was attempting to walk back to bundagen from there.

now it was past 6pm when Mr Robb saw Rose for the second and last time. It was April so it was after sunset at that time (I have attached historical data from that time from Repton with sunset Times etc).

looking at google maps, it’s a huge walk, and pretty dangerous, esp after dark! It’s well over an hour walk from the bench to get too bundagen. I’ve attached some pics to show these locations and what they look like.

theres 2 pics of the lookout and wooden bench/bus stop. As well as two pics of one of the roads she would have walked down in the dark going to bundagen.

apologies for the super long post.
 

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Thanks Tootsie for this video, very interesting and I really respected the two coroners that were featurEd. They had a lot of humanity which I didn’t quite expect.

So sad about Rosie. Glad Rosie is getting this attention and hope someone comes forward.
 
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