Can you help solve Bendigo’s cold cases?

DNA technology has moved on, but for cold cases to be solved cost remains a hurdle. Read how families are calling for answers.

Bendigo cold case investigations: Kevin Pearce, Krystal Fraser, Allan Whyte and Maureen Braddy.

A DNA program set up to find answers to some of Australia’s longest standing mysteries is expected to be cut at the end of this year unless further funding can be found.

The National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons was launched in July 2020 by the Australian Federal Police with money from the confiscated assets fund, essentially forcing crims to pay for the program.

Now the families of the missing are calling for it to become a permanently-funded program.

Lyn Butterworth, who was eight years old when her older sister Maureen Braddy and her date Allan Whyte went missing from Bendigo, said it was important for those left behind to have a way to find their loved ones.

“You are left with nothing,” she said.

“Everybody should get the opportunity to take part in the program. The DNA program is something that should be permanent.”

Copy picture of Maureen Braddy who went missing with Allan Whyte after a YMCA dance in 1968.

The program could hold vital answers to a number of missing persons cases, including that of Marcia Ryan, who vanished in August 1996 and whose car was found near Moe.

Her brother Tony Ryan gave a sample of his DNA last year and said he was eager for the program to continue.

“My mum and dad have passed away now and so have some of my siblings,” he said.

“Out of seven of us there are only two left. If we don’t give our DNA now and they find her in 20 years time and we’re all gone how will they match them? There are a lot of families in this situation and we’re all getting older.”

The DNA program has been tasked with matching the 750 unidentified sets of human remains in police storage facilities, with samples provided by families of long-term missing people.

In its first year, it resulted in five matches.

It included Mario Della Torre, missing for 45 years, whose bones were found at False Bay in 1977 and stored by police.

Ms Butterworth said families deserved the chance to use the technology to lay loved ones to rest.

She said the pain of uncertainty and not being able to lay her sister to rest had stayed with her since childhood.

Maureen vanished after leaving a dance at the YMCA Hall in Mundy Street, Bendigo.

She and her date that evening, Allan Whyte, were last seen on the evening of Saturday, November 23 November 1968.

Victoria police have confirmed the cold case remained open.

“A $1m reward remains on offer for information relating to the 1968 disappearance of Bendigo teenagers Maureen Braddy and Allan Whyte,” a police spokeswoman said.

Allan Whyte went missing from Bendigo.

“We understand the disappearance of the pair has been devastating to their families and police remain in discussion with them in relation to this investigation.”

A coronial inquest in 2014 concluded the teenagers had met with foul play.

The pair had met at work.

Allan had been 17 years old and Maureen was aged 16 when they went missing and both had worked at the Crystal Egg Company.

Coroner Iain West said in his findings there was no evidence the pair had been in a sexual relationship and they may not have been any more than friends.

Allan had only joined the egg company about three weeks before the pair went to the dance.

“The contention and belief of a substantial number of witnesses at the time of the disappearance was that Allan and Maureen were in a relationship and had deliberately run away from home,” he found.

“It is apparent that the police who were involved in this matter initially also formed this opinion, which meant that there was no adequate investigation of their disappearance until the late 1990s.”

Maureen Braddy went missing from Bendigo in 1968 and has not been seen since.

Coroner West found neither of the teenagers took money or possessions with them when they vanished and he concluded they had both died on or about November, 23, 1968.

He said there was not enough evidence to determine who was responsible for their deaths.

Ms Butterworth said she wanted the site of an old well located at her childhood home to be dug up, to satisfy lingering questions about whether the bodies of the teenagers would be found there.

She and a group of others held a public protest close to the property in 2021 to call for the well to be dug up.

“It’s so frustrating and it makes you really angry to know that it would only take a week or so of digging to get in there and see if that’s where they are,” she said.

The well was closed over and a home extension built over it years ago and the house sold to new owners.

Coroner West noted that “a number of witnesses are of the belief that the bodies of Maureen and Allan are in the well, (but) subsequent police investigations do not support this theory”.

Police also told the coroner that the “financial and personnel cost to investigate the well was too much” given the lack of certainty involved.

The family of missing Pyramid Hill woman Krystal Fraser received similar coronial findings of foul play last year, following an investigation into her disappearance while pregnant in 2009.

Coroner Katherine Lorenz concluded Ms Fraser had been murdered in the early hours of June 21, 2009, just hours after she was possibly “lured” back to her hometown.

Krystal Fraser was last seen in June 2009 in Pyramid Hill, Victoria. Picture: Australian Federal Police.

Much like the Braddy and Whyte families, they still have not found Krystal’s body or that of her unborn son Ryan.

Chantal Fraser, Krystal’s sister, said however that the coroner’s finding did offer them “relief from 13 years of limbo”.

“Ever since she went missing there was a big dark cloud, not only over our own family but over the town as well, the town was never the same,” she said last year.

Krystal, who was 23 when she was last seen, went missing from the small town after checking herself out of the Bendigo Base Hospital medihotel.

Hospital staff were alarmed, as she was due to give birth to son within days, but Krystal was adamant she wanted to attend a “party”.

Less than one hour after she arrived by train, Krystal was last seen leaving the home of friend and no trace of her has been found.

Police have offered a $1m reward for information leading to a conviction of her killer.

Police are also hoping that the offer of a reward will coax somebody into revealing the identity of the person who shot dead Bendigo trucking contractor Kevin Pearce.

Bendigo man, Kevin Hugh Pearce was shot at McPhees Distribution Centre/Transport Depot in Bellevue road, Golden Square on the night of April 15, 1985. Picture: Victoria Police

He was killed in 1985, and left behind a young family.

Mr Pearce was 45 years old, when he was shot at close range by an unknown person using a high-powered .308 hunting rifle and he died from his wounds weeks later in hospital.

He had been loading his rig at McPhee Transport on Bellevue Rd when, while talking to an employee, the fatal shot rang out near midnight. Mr Pearce was given emergency medical treatment but died at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital.

Coroner Hal Hallenstein, who presided at the inquest, found the killing was carried out by someone with knowledge of the victim’s routine.

“It was a well-planned and clearly calculated operation,” he stated.

Anybody with information about any of these cold cases should contact Crime Stoppers.