Rachel Antonio podcast: Mother of slain Justine Jones says tip search saved her from more pain

WHEN the man convicted over her daughter’s death was released from prison, Kathleen Jones was furious. But she’ll always be grateful for one thing that saved her family from even more pain.

• Rachel Antonio’s father suspected body dumped in skip bin

THE mother of a slain Sunshine Coast woman has called on police to do whatever it takes to find missing schoolgirl Rachel Antonio.

Kathleen Jones says one crucial police action saved her from the fate of Rachel’s parents, who have spent 18 years looking for their daughter who vanished without a trace.

Ms Jones’s 22-year-old daughter Justine went missing in 2010 and her body was only found because police searched a local tip.

“I’ve always thought, at least we know where she is,” Ms Jones told The Courier-Mail yesterday.

Rachel, 16, went missing after being dropped at a cinema by her mum in Bowen, north Queensland, on Anzac Day 1998.

Kathleen Jones and Mick Stivic. Ms Jones is thankful police found her daughter’s body. Justine’s body was found in a tip. Parents of missing schoolgirl Rachel Antonio think their daughter may have ended up in a dump site as well. Pic: Kym Smith

A podcast series, Searching for Rachel Antonio, revealed the Bowen tip was never searched during the police investigation into her disappearance.

Rachel’s parents believe her body may have ended up at the dump, like Justine’s body had.

Police also did not search the tip for a missing T-shirt that a man questioned over Rachel’s disappearance, lifeguard Robert Hytch, was wearing the night she went missing. Hytch has always denied any involvement in Rachel’s disappearance.

Ms Jones said if police needed to dig up the tip in Bowen, north Queensland, to try to find Rachel,costs should not be an obstacle.

“Money is nothing when someone is missing,” she said.

“You can’t say no to anything. As a mother, I would be there with my own hands.

“It would be the same with her mother and father.

“If they had to, they’d do it on their hands and knees.”

In Justine’s case, blood in a neighbour’s wheelie bin, and the realisation whoever killed her had limited time to dispose of her body, led police to search the Nambour tip.

Justine’s body was found in the police search of the dump, eight days after she went missing. She had been put in a bin by her ex-boyfriend, Richard Coburn, and taken to the dump, where she would have remained if not for the search. Coburn, 30, was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

“He made out she disappeared — took all her gear, dumped it and put it in different bins on his way home,” Ms Jones said from her home in Narooma, NSW. “As her mum, I knew straight away.

Justine’s body was found in the Nambour tip. Pic: Supplied

“We said to them, ‘Something is not right’. I’m so grateful to Queensland police. They acted so fast.”

Coburn was released after serving just five years of a 10½-year prison sentence and was deported to NZ.

“I was just getting back on my feet. To hear that he was released — I was furious. It’s like my daughter’s life meant nothing,” Ms Jones said.

Episodes of Searching for Rachel Antonio will be released each Monday.

Follow the links to listen:

iPhone or iPad users search for “rachel antonio podcast” on iTunes — by clicking subscribe, each weekly episode will appear on your podcast app.

Android users can listen by following The Courier-Mail on Soundcloud at soundcloud.com/couriermail.