Renee Aitken: Narooma family’s agony 40 years after daughter’s brutal abduction

On February 16, 1984, the lives of a family changed forever with the “unimaginable” abduction of their five-year-old daughter. 40 years on, those close to Renee Aitken have spoken of their agony.

Renee Aitken has been missing for 40 years.

It’s a mystery which has rattled a NSW South Coast town for four decades – the “unimaginable” abduction of an innocent five-year-old girl.

Ahead of the 40th anniversary on February 16, the heartache remains “extra raw”.

Renee Aitken was ripped from her Narooma bedroom in the early hours of February 16, 1984, while her mother Morna Aitken and partner at the time, former Eurobodalla mayor Neil Mumme, sleptin their room.

“There wouldn’t be a day that goes by that I don’t think about Renee,” Mr Mumme told The Daily Telegraph a week before the anniversary.

“It still feels like it happened yesterday.”

On that horrific day, Mr Mumme, Mrs Aitken, her eight-year-old son Bradley Aitken and Renee enjoyed dinner in Narooma before returning to their apartment.

It was regular Wednesday for the family, with Renee crawling into bed by 11.15pm.

The next day, she was gone.

Morna Aitken with a photograph of her son Bradley and missing 5-year-old daughter Renee.

“She would be 45-years-old now,” Mr Mumme said.

“It’s a horrific thing; a thing you wish never happened.”

Mrs Aitken – who has never spoken to the media – remains in contact with Mr Mumme despite no longer being in a relationship.

“It’s just ruined her,” he said.

“But she still holds out hope like any mother.”

However, hope seemed lost for the grieving family in 2003 during the inquest into Renee’s disappearance when it heard that the prime suspect, known sex offender Brian Fitzpatrick, was killed in a car crash in Invergordon, Victoria.

Neil Mumme was Renee’s mother’s partner at the time of the disappearance.

Brian Fitzpatrick, 1987.

Mr Mumme said Renee’s family believed it was suicide, however police could not confirm this.

“He died six months before the inquest was set to start,” Mr Mumme said.

“It ruined any hope.”

Despite the death, the inquest was still held in the Albury Courthouse on August 15, 2003, finding Renee was likely murdered on or after February 16, 1984.

During the inquest, Batemans Bay Detective Sergeant Ted Freeman told the court interviews with Fitzpatrick at Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison in 1987 – where he was behind bars for indecent assault – left police with “no doubt he was involved in [Renee’s] disappearance”.

No trace of her body was ever found.

In 2002, only a year before the inquest, the family received a glimmer of hope when a phone call was made to the Australian authorities from an American woman who believed she might be Renee.

Renee Aitken with her brother, Bradley Aitken.

“There was the phone call and, for a moment, we thought maybe it could be something,” Mr Mumme said.

The American woman was flown to Australia for DNA testing with Renee’s mother.

There was no match.

Renee’s aunt Robyn Aitken previously spoke to The Daily Telegraph about the cautious hope the phone call from the mysterious woman provided.

“We wanted to shield Morna in case [the American woman] didn’t come to anything,” she said.

“That’s exactly what happened.

“It was really horrendous because it’s that moment of, what if this is the one?”

Now, 40 years since Renee disappeared, the family remains lost.

“Any anniversary is a raw time and there’s something about four decades, zero answers which just feels extra raw,” Mr Mumme said.

For Renee’s family however, Mr Mumme said they would never give up.

“It’s something that happened in our lives that you try to move on from, but it’s just impossible to do so,” he said.

“I’ll never stop thinking about it.

“They’ll never stop searching for answers.”

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