Cheryl Francis refuses to give up search for daughter Shae

The mother of a young woman whose body was left to decay for three weeks before being dumped in a skip bin has revealed her heartbreaking daily search five years on. WATCH THE VIDEO

When strangers ask Cheryl Francis what she is looking for when they see her scouring the beaches of Hervey Bay, she is honest with them.

She is searching for her daughter’s body.

Shae Francis was 35 years old and living with her boyfriend, Jason Cooper, when she died in October 2018.

Cooper was convicted and sentenced for interfering with a corpse after initially being charged with Shae’s manslaughter after he admitted to dumping her body in a skip bin.

In 2021, after 896 days in custody counted as time served for the offences of interfering with a corpse and fraudulently using Shae’s bank cards after her death, Cooper walked free.

Cheryl Francis speaks out about her lost daughter, Shae.

He said Shae had died in her sleep. The courts were told he stayed with her in that bedroom for three weeks before dumping her body in the skip bin.

Within days of Shae’s death, Cooper was using her credit card to access $9260 from her Centrelink pension, spending the money on alcohol and rent.

After Cooper admitted to dumping her body in a skip bin, police combed every part of the Maryborough rubbish tip but they never found Shae.

Hervey Bay’s Shae Francis died in 2018.

This week (July 31 to August 4) is Missing Person’s Week and Ms Francis has vowed to keep searching for her daughter.

From Tooan Tooan Creek along the length of the beach at Hervey Bay, sometimes finding sleeping bags, blankets and clothes that each time make her heart jump, she searches almost every day.

She hasn’t found Shae yet, but she says she will never give up.

Every day she thinks about her daughter and where she might be.

Cheryl Francis leaves Brisbane Supreme Court. Pics Adam Head

“She’s always there, every day,” Ms Francis said.

Shae had struggled with alcohol addiction and had been hospitalised at one point and had intended to live with her mother after being released.

“She had asked for help and she had come home,” Ms Francis said.

“She spent quite a few weeks in hospital recuperating.”

At the end of Shae’s stay in hospital, Shae decided to go live with Cooper.

Victorian man Jason Cooper was convicted and sentenced for interfering with a corpse after initially being charged with Shae’s manslaughter after he admitted to dumping her body in a skip bin.

Her recovery continued until September 2018, with Ms Francis describing her daughter as “happy and healthy”.

“She was eating, my friends would see her walking up and down.

‘YOU COULD SEE HER BLOSSOMING’

“She was a beautiful young lady, very intelligent and kind young woman.

“You could see that blossoming in her.”

It was while Ms Francis was undergoing surgery in hospital that Shae vanished.

Hauntingly, she was called by police after an officer visited the unit where Shae and Cooper had been living.

A neighbour had reported a bad smell coming from the apartment and the officer called Ms Francis to ask if Shae was with her.

Ms Francis said she had a bad feeling immediately and asked if Shae was dead.

But police dismissed her concerns, she says, one officer told her he “knew what a dead body smelled like”.

Ms Francis said an officer told her Cooper had told him Shae had left the apartment with two women to seek help. Police had not verified that story or Shae’s wellbeing, she said.

Hervey Bay’s Shae Francis, 35. Her body has never been found.

The Torquay Esplanade unit block in The Hub that Shae and Cooper had been sharing had been stripped and cleaned by the time police examined it, Ms Francis said.

‘OVERPOWERING OFF MEAT STENCH’

A former worker who was cross-examined in a former committal hearing described the smell in the unit as an “overpowering off meat” stench that reminded her of a morgue she had previously worked in.

Shae’s family says for the room to be re-rented by the owners, it was refurbished, repainted and completely redone, leaving no evidence for police to strengthen a homicide case against Cooper that was circumstantial, and left open the possibility Shae had died unsuspiciously, possibly – as a court would later hear – of an alcohol-induced cardiac arrest, and he had panicked.

Judge William Everson said Cooper, also a chronic alcoholic who was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, chose to kid himself that she might wake up and ignored the body.

He said Cooper said he stayed in the room with Shae’s body for three weeks before he wrapped it in a sleeping bag.

Cooper claimed he intended to fulfil Shae’s wishes by burying her at a beach, but he panicked when he saw a police car while transporting the body.

Cheryl-Lee Francis lights a candle at the shrine for Shae outside The Hub at Hervey Bay. Photo: Cody Fox

Judge Everson said Cooper said he put the body in a skip bin and that when he returned a couple of hours later, the body was gone.

After Shae’s death, Cooper continued to tell her family she was alive and had gone to a rehabilitation facility.

Within days he was using her credit card to access $9260 from her Centrelink pension, spending the money on alcohol and rent, the courts heard.

He sent text messages to her family to deceive them that she was no longer in Hervey Bay – actions Judge Everson described as callous.

FRUSTRATION WITH POLICE EFFORTS

Ms Francis is frustrated with police actions in the aftermath of Shae’s disappearance.

She filed a missing person’s report in February 2019, after Shae disappeared, but says it was not acted on.

Cheryl-Lee Francis speaks out about her daughter, Shae.

It wasn’t until her sister filed a report in Shepparton in Victoria that action was taken, she said.

Now, in the aftermath of the search for Shae and the court case, Ms Francis prays one day she will be able to lay her daughter to rest.

“I can’t say goodbye. I can’t visit. I can’t place flowers and those sorts of things that a mother would want to do,” she said.

She finds herself drawn to the beach even now.

Ms Francis worked as an environmental officer for Fraser Coast Regional Council and had a good awareness of the region’s bush locations and waterways.

SEARCHING ON HER HANDS AND KNEES FOR SHAE

But it’s the beach that draws her back, time and time again.

She has searched from Robert St in Urangan all the way to Point Vernon, about 10km.

“That’s on my hands and knees crawling under trees, under the walkways,” she said.

“People would ask me, what are you looking for? And I would just say ‘oh my daughter’s body’.

“I had no time for politeness, I was on a mission.”

And when the tip was searched for Shae’s body in 2020, Ms Francis’ neighbours would come running to her aid when she woke up with terrible nightmares.

The day she was told by a detective that her daughter was dead, she remembers breaking down about three hours after the information sunk in.

“I just went hysterical,” she said.

The Covid pandemic was a time for Ms Francis to hide away and deal with her pain. But now, during Missing Person’s Week, she says it’s time to remind the public that Shae has still not been found.

A burial would give her the dignity and respect Shae deserved, she said.

POLICE DEFEND INVESTIGATION

A spokesman for the Queensland Police responded to Cheryl’s concerns.

“We can confirm police completed a welfare check in relation to a foul smell, however, there was no information following a search of the unit, to raise suspicion of any offence to be investigated at that time and the actions of first response who attended was found to be appropriate when overviewed locally,” he said.

“When Shae was reported missing four months later on March 4, 2019, the investigation was given the highest priority. A task force was established and the case was investigated fully.”

If you have any information relating to Shae Francis’ matter, you can make an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.