Mother of murdered Queensland schoolgirl Stacey-Ann Tracy speaks out 26 years after her daughter was killed in Roma

SHE moved with her daughters away from the dangers of the Gold Coast — right into the clutches of a convicted paedophile and murderer. Now her surviving child can’t leave the family home.

Janet Clarke says she will live with the murder of her daughter, Stacey-Ann Tracy (pictured), until the day she dies.

JANET Clarke’s life was destroyed on May 26, 1990.

Her daughter Stacey-Ann Tracy went missing four days earlier after she dropped her younger sister off at Roma Junior School in western Queensland.

But it took 96 hours for Mrs Clarke’s worst fears to be confirmed.

Stacey-Ann’s half-naked body was found tied in a garbage bag about 5km from town.

Mrs Clarke had relocated her girls from the Gold Coast to the country town to get away from the dangers of the Glitter Strip.

Little did she know a convicted paedophile and murderer was living among them.

Barry Gordon Hadlow was quickly charged with Stacey-Ann’s murder and in 1991 he was found guilty by a jury.

The sentencing judge ordered Hadlow never be released, but he died in jail in 2007 after serving just 16 years.

Mrs Clarke told The Courier-Mail she did not know her daughter’s killer had died until she was informed by her doctor.

“I was upset because I thought he hadn’t suffered enough,” she said.

“I wanted him to do a lot more time in jail.”

Mrs Clarke said she didn’t believe in the death penalty before her daughter’s tragedy, but now thought it was necessary for serial killers.

“It changed my opinion for sure,” she said.

Janet Clarke back in 1990 when her daughter was murdered.

The mother-of-two never received an apology from Hadlow.

“I wanted the question answered why but I never got the answer,” she said.

In fact when Hadlow was being sentenced he yelled out and reminded the judge it was his life he was playing with.

Mrs Clarke said at the time she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I thought ‘well what a joke because what about the lives he played with’,” she said.

“He destroyed my life.

“It’s something I live with and something I’m going to live with until I do die.

“I’m as happy as I can be without Stacey-Ann around, but there’s not a minute of the day I don’t think of her.

“She’s always in my thoughts.”

Mrs Clarke and her youngest daughter Elizabeth left Roma about 18 months after Stacey-Ann’s body was found.

“It was just too much being in a small town,” she said.

“Everybody knew you and I’d be walking up the street and I’d hear people saying ‘there is the mum of that little girl’.

“Libby was getting abused at school; she had kids say to her they wished it was her that was killed.

“It was just too small a town for such a big event to happen there.”

The pair returned to Mrs Clarke’s home state of Victoria, where they remain today.

Elizabeth, now, 34, still lives with her mum.

MAN WHO KILLED STACEY-ANN TRACY WAS ALREADY A CONVICTED MURDERER AND PAEDOPHILE

Mrs Clarke said her daughter did not want to move out.

“She doesn’t want to go out there,” she said.

“She says ‘mum there is just so much evil in the world’.”

Mrs Clarke’s second marriage ended following the death of Stacey-Ann, but she remarried and has been with her current husband for the past 20 years.

Her health and faith were also severely impacted by the trauma of losing a child.

Mrs Clarke has had two nervous breakdowns, a heart attack and now suffers from emphysema.

She also no longer believes in God.

Mrs Clarke said her life was a “constant one day at a time battle”.

“I cope with life as much as I can but I do have my days where I get down and downright miserable,” she said.

“Especially when it comes to birthdays, Christmas and anniversaries.

“You’ll see something and you’ll think ‘what would Stacey have been doing now?’

“It’s always on your mind, it just never seems to go away.

“I’m sure that’s the truth for a lot of parents who have lost their kids that way.”

Mrs Clarke said it had not been financially possible for her to return to Roma to visit her daughter’s grave.

However she said she planned to make the trip next year for the first time since 1991.

“Apparently a couple of people in Roma have come up with the money and they’re going to do a proper headstone and put it on Stacey’s grave,” she said.

“I’ve never met these people, it’s a man and a woman that’s all I know.”