How did Rhianna Barreau simply vanish without trace 25 years ago?
TWENTY five years ago, schoolgirl Rhianna Barreau, 12, vanished from her home without trace. Nigel Hunt examines the baffling case.
AT BEST there are only two or three possible scenarios in which South Australian schoolgirl Rhianna Barreau vanished.
In the first, Rhianna answered the front door to someone she knew and went with them willingly. The second sees her answer the door, only to be taken against her will — silently and swiftly — from the house.
The third involves her simply leaving the house voluntarily for some reason, walking away from it — unseen by any witnesses — and being snatched at another location.
The second and third scenarios appear unlikely. Rhianna’s house in Wakefield Ave, Morphett Vale, was locked, there was no sign of a struggle and no one reported hearing any disturbance on the afternoon she vanished.
And Rhianna’s mother firmly believes she would not have left the house without asking her, a view shared by police. Reinforcing this belief is the total absence of any sighting after Rhianna returned home from a trip to the local shops.
That leaves the inescapable, unpalatable likelihood that Rhianna most likely knew the person who abducted and subsequently murdered her.
Statistically, child abductions are a rarity. There have been just a handful over the past few decades. They are also among the hardest for police to solve. Unless there are witnesses or forensic evidence, leads are few, mostly because the perpetrators act alone and tell no one of their crime.
In this respect the abduction and presumed murder of Rhianna Barreau remains one of South Australia’s most enduring mysteries. Despite thousands of hours of Major Crime investigations and the posting of a $1 million reward for information on the case, it remains unsolved.
It is highly likely that if Rhianna were snatched today, the result may be very different. Policing techniques and technology have both evolved considerably, tipping the balance against those who prey on children.
Major Crime case officer Brevet Sergeant Simon May said “every aspect’’ of the file was now under review and about 200 exhibits were being re-examined by forensic officers using new technology.
Despite its lapse in time, there are still regular calls to Crimestoppers by people who believe they have information about the case that could assist police.
After her mother left for work on October 7, 1992, it appears Rhianna remained at home until midmorning. There was a positive sighting of her at 10.30am walking towards a Reynella newsagency. The last sighting was at 12.30pm on Highway Dr, between the Morphett Vale High School and the Stanvac Primary School.
While Rhianna returned home after that sighting — the card she purchased was on a dining room table — precisely what time and what then occurred after that remains a mystery.
“A lot of people who were younger and lived in that area still remember the disappearance vividly. Some of the calls have been useful,’’ Detective Bvt Sgt May said.
The trail of Rhianna’s killer is certainly not cold. While detectives have no firm suspect, they do have several persons of interest they believe have information concerning her disappearance.
Detectives have closely considered the possibility the offender may have been a paedophile who was living in the area at the time and “a number’’ who were known to police have been scrutinised.
The lack of direct information in relation to an offender may well indicate it was someone who was acting alone and who has not shared their information with anyone else.
“It does make our job harder. If anyone had been told, you would hope with the passage of time allegiances have changed and they may need to get it off their chest,’’ Detective Bvt Sgt May said.
“She does appear to have left the house in an orderly manner. There was no break and enter, there wasn’t a struggle and the house wasn’t a mess.
“There is an absence of any neighbourhood disturbance, screams, anything like that in that vicinity that day.
“It certainly opens up the possibility she may have known the person or had some reason to be comfortable with that person maybe. That is one possibility we are looking at.’’ Another factor pointing in that direction is the fact no one has claimed the $1 million reward available for information that helps solve the case — simply because there are no witnesses.
In her only interview since Rhianna was abducted, conducted in 2015, her mother Paula told me her memories of the day her daughter vanished were still vivid.
“It is still there. I can still see myself walking into her room before I left for work,’’ she said.
“She was listening to music and told me: ‘shush mum, I’m listening to this.’ The song was The B-52’s hit Loveshack, one of Rhianna’s favourites.” Before going to work Paula had talked with Rhianna about her plan to go to the local shopping centre to buy a card for an American penfriend. Ironically, there was a bus strike that day, so she was going to walk.
Ms Barreau can remember the instant she walked into the house late that afternoon when she arrived home. It was 4.10pm. The television was still on and a record was on the floor. The card Rhianna had bought was still in its wrapper on the table. She looked for Rhianna inside and outside, but there was no sign.
Like his former wife, Rhianna’s father Leon Barreau has strong recollections of the day his daughter vanished. At the time he was living on the Gold Coast.
When his former wife rang him several hours after she arrived home, his first thought was to get to Adelaide to help find her. He arrived with his wife, Sandra, the next morning.
While Mr Barreau has accepted his daughter is dead, he still gets angry when he thinks about the circumstances of his loss and simply not knowing what took place.
“I have been totally denied the knowledge of what happened to Rhianna and being able to deal with her remains respectfully,’’ he said.
“I am hoping there will be a resolution, but I seriously doubt it will be in our favour, to be honest. I am convinced she is deceased, it is just a matter of where she is and what happened to her.”
Sadly, Mr Barreau’s father, Rex, passed away in 2012, aged 88, still grieving over the loss of his granddaughter.
His mother, Muriel, who “just worshipped” Rhianna, also passed away in late 2016 without seeing a resolution in the case.
In a heartfelt letter she wrote me in 2015 after I interviewed Rhianna’s parents, Murial “Midge’’ Barreau said she hoped the “public will understand we were just a normal, caring family’’.
“… the last years since ’92 have always been clouded in a veil of sadness so one would never enjoy life’s special moments in complete happiness,’’ she wrote.
“On Rhianna’s 13th birthday some of the family planted 13 wattle trees with the help of Friends of Morialta at Morialta. Sadly I have never been able to return.
“Perhaps one day you would write an article on what a wonderful gift life is?
“I try to pass on the message to young people I meet.
“My last image of the beautiful, clever Rhianna is in my house wrapped in a pink dressing gown looking in the mirror.
“When I asked ‘why?’, her reply was ‘just planning my future gma!’.”
Detective can’t help but keep looking, and wonder
VETERAN homicide detective Allen Arthur retired just over 23 years ago, but there is still one job that haunts him.
Each time he drives through the southern suburbs on the way to his South Coast home, his memory is flooded with thoughts of Rhianna Barreau.
Mr Arthur spent much of the last two years of his distinguished policing career investigating her abduction and murder and is still troubled by it. He is optimistic the case will be solved.
“You look across the open ground and always wonder if she is out there. she has to be somewhere,’’ he said.
He recalls the first few months of the investigation, which was conducted from an incident room that had been established at Christies Beach police station.
“The media interest was intense and we finished up with hundreds and hundreds of calls from people wanting to assist with any information they thought might be valuable,’’ he said.
“Some was helpful, but most were not, but people were very keen to help find Rhianna.
“It was an atrocious incident. People responded because a young girl had disappeared off the face of the earth and they were concerned.’’
Mr Arthur said that within several weeks it became clear young Rhianna had been abducted and most likely murdered.
“It was just too clean cut,’’ he said.
“We looked into her background in the initial stages and found she was not an adventurous girl, she was a family girl and could be trusted. She didn’t have a boyfriend, would not have run away, so the more we learned of her family history I was convinced she had met a terrible fate.’’
He said the lack of positive leads and sightings after Rhianna returned home from the shops had left him with a “clear belief’’ as to what happened.
“I think the perpetrator lives closer to her home address than perhaps further out,’’ he said.
“But I still look at those paddocks around Morphett Vale and Christies and ask myself the question: ‘I wonder where she is?’
“I think that until someone who knows what happened — and there always is someone — comes forward, then I think this will remain unresolved.’’
- This story was first published in October 2017