Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson: Strike Force Arapaima search scout camp for remains
An excavator and specialist officers will return to a former Lake Macquarie scout camp on Thursday to continuing searching for the remains of Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson, who disappeared in 1979.
Police & Courts
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It is an old scout camp on the banks of picturesque Lake Macquarie which detectives fear could have secretly doubled as a serial killer’s dumping ground more than four decades ago.
Police have identified numerous possible dig sites within the old Camp Kanangra scout camp at Nords Wharf as they search for the remains of missing teenagers Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson, who disappeared during a two-week period in 1979.
The search, using specialist police and an excavator, went throughout Wednesday and will continue on Thursday.
The patch of land – less than 9km from where 14-year-old Amanda vanished while walking to her Swansea home on April 21, 1979 – has been identified by Strike Force Arapaima detectives following a painstaking two-year investigation into the disappearances and suspected murders of the two girls.
Robyn, 18, vanished from a Belmont North bus stop on April 7, 1979. A fortnight later, Amanda would disappear as she walked home along Lake Rd at Swansea after getting off a bus from a school dance.
Detectives strongly suspect links between the cases and the search of the old Camp Kanangra scout camp follows specific information reported to investigators.
The area in question remained a scout camp for decades — including at the time both teenagers vanished — before it was snapped up by developers in 2013.
The current owners have been extremely cooperative with investigators to help identify specific areas of land on the property.
“The information garnered throughout the investigation has led us to investigate this site but I want to stress this is one site out of a number of many and police are continuing to follow strong leads in regards to this investigation,’’ Lake Macquarie crime manager Detective Inspector Steve Benson said outside the scout camp on Wednesday.
Det Insp Benson said the sites were all in and around Lake Macquarie.
It is understood that included more areas needing further investigation within the old scout camp.
The search comes just two days after $1m rewards were announced for information in relation to both cases as senior police confirmed Strike Force Arapaima detectives had “strong lines of inquiry” into the Robinson and Hickie cases.
“[We are] looking for evidence to the disappearances. The specific nature of that I won’t go into because we have got to maintain the integrity of the investigation,’’ Det Insp Benson said.
“But I would also like to take the opportunity to thank those that have come forward since Monday.
“We are reviewing every single piece of information that has come through and we will be in contact with the people.’’
Police cordoned off an area surrounding the southern end of Nords Wharf on Wednesday morning after spending several days there in the past week checking out possible “areas of interest”.
The strike force kicked off a fresh investigation into the suspected murders in early 2019. Together with the two 1979 disappearances, they are also looking into fresh lines of inquiry into the unrelated abduction of Gordana Kotevski at Charlestown in 1994.
Robyn was on her way to meet friends at a Belmont pub when she disappeared from the Pacific Highway bus stop near the intersection with Ntaba Rd.
And Amanda was seen getting off a bus at Swansea after catching it home from a school dance at Gateshead.
Credible witnesses say they last saw Amanda walking on the northern side of Lake Rd and just a few hundred metres from home.
It is not the first time that police have performed land searches in relation to the disappearances of the two Lake Macquarie girls.
Strike Force Fenwick, established in the late 1990s to reinvestigate more than a dozen suspicious disappearances across the Hunter, also searched parts of Lake Macquarie during its investigation.
A coroners inquest in 2001 into the Hickie and Robinson cases, as well as Lake Macquarie woman Leanne Goodall, heard evidence from backpacker killer Ivan Milat.
However, Strike Fore Arapaima detectives have ruled Milat out as a suspect in the Hickie and Robinson investigations.
The Newcastle News revealed earlier this month that a woman was able to escape the clutches of an kidnapper at Blacksmiths Beach in January, 1979 – just four months before the Robyn and Hickie disappeared and only a few kilometres from both areas where they were both seen.
The woman also reported her attacker was driving a green Holden Torana, the same colour and make as has been seen in the vicinity of Amanda’s disappearance.
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