Quanne Diec: Detective Inspector Brad Cox describes mixed emotions as man charged over schoolgirl’s murder
THE man who led the hunt for missing 12-year-old Quanne Diec in the early days of her disappearance said the arrest of her alleged killer had provided “some relief” for the family.
Parramatta
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THE man who led the hunt for missing 12-year-old Quanne Diec in the early days of her disappearance has described the charge of her alleged killer as “the beginning of the end of a tragic story”.
Detective Inspector Brad Cox worked on the case of the missing school girl from 1999 to 2002.
“Not a week goes by without thinking of the case,” he said.
“You continue to second guess the decisions that were made at the time and you start to regret some of the choices that were made but this result provides some closure.”
He said the arrest and charge of 49-year-old Vincent Tarantino provided some relief for the Diec family, but that the end of the heartache would not come until her body was found.
“They were beside themselves even years after her disappearance, today is a day of mixed emotions.”
The former detective inspector developed a bond with the family in the years following Quanne’s disappearance and was relentless in his search to find her.
“We all lived in hope that something would happen. I have my own children and thought about it often,” he said.
“You get attached to the family, I spent countless afternoons with them.
“We tried every single thing.”
During the investigation Detective Inspector Cox said police had hypnotised witnesses, set up mannequins and drained and searched a nearby waterway, Duck Creek, but failed to come up with answers.
He recounted Quanne’s father, Sam Diec’s ongoing determination to find his daughter against all odds.
“He heard someone had spotted her in the background of footage at a torch cermony in Fraser Island and immediately flew there to make inquiries for himself,” he said.
Forensic investigators are searching for the body of the school girl at a Granville property just streets away from her family home.
The house is believed to be the former residence of Mr Tarantino charged with her murder from 1998.
The young girl was making her way to Clyde Station from her Granville home on the morning of July 27, 1998 but never made it.
Superintendent Scott Whyte confirmed the man had been a key suspect in the investigation and that the attack was neither random nor opportunistic.
“He was certainly a subject person and a person of interest in the investigation for those 18 years,” he told the media on Monday morning.
“There is a search underway at the moment and it will remain our priority, they will never give up until they can bring Quanne home and mum and dad can put her to rest.”
“The key to this one is that police never gave up.”
The man was not known to the family, and Superintendent Whyte confirmed the girl was not alive for a long time before her death.
He appeared at Central Local Court briefly on Monday and will be back in court in January 2017.
The residence in question is a short distance away from the Diec family home, where they continued to live in hope Quanne would return home.
Neighbour Nadia Nasser has lived opposite the Diec family for as long as they have been in the street and said she often saw Mr Diec walking his daughter to the station.
“Every day he would walk with his daughter to the station,” she said.
“And if he couldn’t walk down he would watch her go down the street. He took care of his kids.
“But this time because he was busy with his business, he couldn’t take her.”
The Strathfield Girls High student was not reported missing to police until 10 hours after her disappearance because the school believed she was probably at home sick.
If she were still alive, Quanne would be 30-years-old.
Strike force Lydney was established in 2000 to investigate the disappearance and Superintendent Whyte says the arrest was the result of consistent police work.
“This investigation has been going since 1998, the investigators have interviewed and reinterviewed and it goes to show that the NSW police never give up hope.
“There are people out there who we have spoken to and now perhaps, in light of this, might want to come back and speak to us about what they may or may not know.”
Residents in a Granville street were woken to the sounds of police early this morning, as they began forensic investigation into the property.
“I just woke up and it sounded like helicopters everywhere,” said neighbouring resident Khadeja Hassan.
“I popped my head out the window and just saw cops everywhere ...
“This street was safe until today.”
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