Linda Reed: Gold Coast woman’s 1983 cold case rape and murder at the hands of Troy James O’Meara
A young Gold Coast woman went out for lunch at Pacific Fair and never returned. Her brutal murder sparked one of Australia’s most famous manhunts.
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Linda Reed went out for lunch and never came back.
The 21-year-old was working at the McDonnell and East department store in Pacific Fair during the busy pre-Christmas retail season and was ready for a break.
The shop assistant told her colleagues she was taking her sandwich out to her car to eat in peace but never returned.
The alarm was raised soon after she failed to reappear for the rest of her shift, sparking a police investigation into what became known as one of Australia’s most shocking crimes.
Next week marks 40 years since Linda Reed disappeared.
A search of Pacific Fair’s carpark, led by her husband Robert, failed to find any trace of the young woman.
Detective Sergeant Bob Pease was among the investigators and recalled the case in 2002.
“You don’t like to think someone got away with such a serious and horrendous crime,’’ he said. “Linda had such a strong work ethic that everyone found it strange when she didn’t come back from lunch that day and it was a complete mystery at first.’’
Ms Reed’s body was found three days later in bushland at Gaven, just 100m from her car which was still full of Christmas presents.
“Linda’s hands had been tied behind her back with a bikini top and a piece of blue cord. The straps of her dress and bra had also been wrapped around her wrists,” the Bulletin previously reported.
“It was believed she had been sexually assaulted, tied up and left to drown in a creek puddle.”
Mr Reed later spoke of his anguish in the days following his wife’s disappearance and killing.
“All that time after Linda died, I didn’t sleep except for about four hours a night,” he said Rob.
“I’d just lie in the dark and think of the why, the who and the how, especially why. Why Linda? She was as sweet as an angel. I would rack my brain. “How was it possible for a girl like Linda to leave her job at McDonnell and East for a bit of lunch and not come back?’’
The mystery of who killed Linda lasted 35 years and took several strange turns.
Police diligently continued their investigation into the crime, using her own car and a mannequin dressed in similar clothes as exhibits to try and trigger memories of the day she disappeared.
In 1986 police charged Craig Andrew McConnell with Ms Reed’s slaying after it was alleged he had confessed to cellmate Graham Steer at Boggo Road jail.
McConnell, a convicted double-murderer, was tried for the crime but was acquitted after Steer died of a heroin overdose.
An inquest was held in 1987.
The trail went cold and decades passed without any answers about how Ms Reed met her end.
It wasn’t until 2018, nearly 35 years later, that police arrested Troy James O’Meara, who himself had been in prison since 1985 for the unrelated murder of Vanessa O’Brien
Forensics which had been collected from Ms Reed’s car in 1983 by the original investigating officers broke the case.
O’Meara pleaded guilty to raping and killing Ms Reed.
Supreme Court Justice Glenn Martin said in sentencing: “The manner in which he treated her in the short time before her awful death is sufficient to demonstrate the vile intent he held at that time.’’
He was given a 20-year sentence for the murder and 10 years for the rape, though due to his long imprisonment, he became eligible for parole in July 2022.
He remains behind bars.
Ms Reed’s mother, Nancy Fein, said in 2021 following O’Meara’s plea she still visited her “beautiful and loving’’ daughter’s grave every week.
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