End the secrecy: Daughter’s brutal death haunts her mother
A heartbroken mother remains desperate for justice 17 years after her daughter was fatally stabbed at a funeral wake, as explosive historic police interviews show the person named by a coroner as a key suspect later said “it was an accident”.
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A heartbroken mother remains desperate for justice 17 years after her daughter was fatally stabbed at a funeral wake as explosive historic police interviews show one of the five suspects identified by the coroner later said ”it was an accident”.
Cathy Ryan has called for renewed action from the police as yet another anniversary of her 22-year-old daughter Kristy Williams’ death in Cowra on June 21, 2003, is about to come and go.
No one has been charged, a $100,000 reward remains on offer and for the first time the Unsolved Homicide Squad is reviewing the Aboriginal woman’s case.
“I just want the police to do something. To speak with people again. Someone is keeping a secret and knows what happened,” Ms Ryan told The Daily Telegraph.
Kristy died of a stab wound at a house in Cowra after a wake. There were three other men in the house at the time, her partner Norman Wedge, brother Harry Wedge and and half-brother Warren “Duck” Doolan. Only Duck Doolan remains alive.
A 2007 inquest heard Norman Wedge woke to find her lifeless “cold” body next to him on the floor of a room on Saturday morning at the Erambie Mission after drinking at the house the night before following a funeral.
A police statement tendered to the inquest, and obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveals claims by a witness James Caston, a pensioner who had known Kristy since she was 10.
He told police he was home with Aboriginal elder Margaret Glass, who identified Kristy’s body, when Duck Doolan visited to talk about her death.
“I was sitting in the lounge room and Duckie walked in and sat on the lounge next to Margaret. Margaret said, ‘Tell me what happened, Duck tell me?” Mr Caston said in his statement according to police.
“Duckie said, ‘I don’t know aunty Marg, I don’t know, it was an accident.’ He kept saying this over and over. he was crying all the time. I didn’t speak to him. He was there for about 10 minutes.”
Mr Caston told police Kristy’s partner Norman visited Margaret a few days later “drunk as a skunk”.
He said Norman told Margaret, “It was Duck, Duck done it. It was an accident, it was an accident”.
The inquest heard Kristy had smashed a plate over Norman’s head after arguing about an old South Sydney footy jumper he gave away to a friend. During the incident, evidence was given that Duck had taken a knife off her and placed it back in the sink.
The coronial inquest in 2007 found Kristy was killed by either a resident or a visitor to the Erambie Mission by a single wound to her heart.
State coroner Carl Milovanovich identified six suspects but said there was not enough evidence to accuse anyone. As well as the men in the house, there were two women, one of whom was an ex-girlfriend of Norman’s. He said the close-knit community not wishing to dob on one another, coupled with rumours and hearsay, hindered the investigation.
“It is most improbable that Miss Williams was the victim of some person who was passing through the mission on that night. It is also probable that the murderer is one of the persons of interest,” he said.
Police statements tendered to the inquest show three people gave evidence that Duck Doolan changed his behaviour after Kristy’s death. Mission resident Rosie Williams told police in a statement she thought Duck knew something but said he would never murder Kristy or “hurt a fly”.
“Me and Harry (Wedge) discuss Duck, you know, like Duck knows something but he just won’t say, say anything … It’s not Duck anymore,” Ms Williams told police. “He’s just like, he just drinks and drinks, doesn’t even worry about himself, you know. And he cries and cries, every time he’s drunk, he cries.”
Kristy’s old housemate Charmaine Doolan told police in a statement that Duck said he cleaned up blood in the kitchen. Another woman Suzanne Collette told police in a statement she saw Duck mop the floor of the kitchen the morning after Kristy’s death.
Another man Rodney Kenneth Doolan told police in a statement Duck told him the morning Kristy died that he was going away.
Ms Ryan told The Daily Telegraph her daughter feared for her life sometimes with Norman Wedge.
“She would attack him sometimes, like in domestic violence cases women end up doing,” Ms Ryan said.
“Kristy rang me a few times. Said he was going to kill her. I told her to come up to Queensland but she didn’t.”
Ms Ryan said she believed her daughter was killed by accident.
“Whoever was in the house that night knows what happened. But they have that connection as family and they won’t talk,” Ms Ryan said.
“I think police saw Kristy as someone who partied and drank, but she was my girl, friendly and full of life. She deserves the effort.”