Mother of Lyndsay van Blanken pleas with authorities not to release killer William Matheson

The mother of a NSW teenager who was strangled and her body hidden in a cricket bag has spoken of her horror the killer might strike again.

The mother of a teenager who was brutally strangled and her body hidden in a cricket bag is pleading with authorities not to release the killer.

William Matheson is serving 25 years in prison after killing Lyndsay van Blanken, a gifted animator with a promising career at Disney, in November 2003.

Matheson has a bid for freedom approaching -and Lynday’s mother Cynthia van Blanken is determined to keep him behind bars.

If he is successful, Matheson will allow him to live in the community, albeit under strict conditions, for the final six years of his sentence.

Lyndsay van Blanken was killed in 2003.

“Lyndsay was a talented, trainee animator for Walt Disney and had a bright future ahead of her,” Ms van Blanken said.

“She was a quiet and shy young girl that was compassionate and kind, with a love of horses and animals.”

She said there had been examples in the past where murderers released on parole had ended with “tragic results”.

“A murder sentence should be filled in entirety...It is the family‘s concern that this is either evidence of a serial killer or a serial killer in the making. This is not normal behaviour.”

William Matheson was sentenced for murdering Lyndsay but is applying for parole.

Matheson has been in custody since his arrest in 2004.

He was then a 23-year-old social and academic failure who won the affection of his victim by playing the cello at the wedding of Ms van Blanken’s mother and stepfather.

Court documents show Matheson became obsessive and began stalking Ms van Blanken after she met the love of her life over the internet and became engaged.

Ms van Blanken and her new partner were followed by Matheson before the young woman told her mother she was getting “very frightened” by Matheson shortly before her death.

A page from diary of Lyndsay Van Blanken showing a lock of her hair along with a lock from her killer William Matheson.

Tragically, on an evening in November 2003, Matheson waited for Ms van Blanken outside a Bondi Junction pub and walked with her toward Queens Park.

She was never seen alive again.

Six weeks later the bag containing Ms van Blanken’s body was found in a storage room under a Queens Park apartment block.

The court found that Matheson had tightened zip ties around Ms van Blanken’s throat, strangling her to death.

Lyndsay van Blanken’s mother Cynthia is pleading for parole authorities not to release her killer.

Matheson stuffed the young woman in a cricket bag then went to Sydney Entertainment Centre and played his cello for a crowd, acting “quite normally” through the evening.

Police later discovered only one bag of that type had been sold in the entire Eastern Suburbs over the prior six months — and CCTV showed Matheson carrying it out of the shops.

Mrs van Blanken has now launched a change.org petition, calling on the public to support her in stopping Matheson’s release attempt.

Originally published as Mother of Lyndsay van Blanken pleas with authorities not to release killer William Matheson