Shoe found during mine search for body of missing schoolboy Terry Floyd
A SHOE that could belong to murdered Victorian schoolboy Terry Floyd has been found in a mine shaft his body may have been thrown down near Avoca.
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A SHOE that could belong to missing murder victim Terry Floyd has been found down a mine during a search for the schoolboy’s body near Avoca.
The breakthrough has convinced Terry’s brother Daryl that he is correct in thinking Terry’s body was dumped down the mine in 1975 before it was filled in.
READ MORE: THE PAEDOPHILE SUSPECTED OF TERRY’S MURDER
MILLION DOLLAR REWARD FOR MISSING SCHOOLBOY
He hopes the shoe find will convince Victoria Police to organise and pay for the mine to be further excavated.
“We found two small pieces of leather a couple of weeks ago but they only became significant when we recently found the upper half of the shoe with the eyelets and it matched the other pieces of leather we found,” Mr Floyd told the Herald Sun today.
“I have alerted Victoria Police that I believe the shoe is one of the ones Terry was wearing when he went missing.
“I believe the find is absolutely significant enough for Victoria Police to fund and take over the search, preferably with the help of the State Emergency Service as it has the expertise to complete the mine excavation.”
Mr Floyd has spent more than $120,000 of his own money excavating the old gold mine near Avoca.
Victoria Police and the Andrews Government have so far contributed a further $50,000 each and former coalition government Police Minister Peter Ryan chipped in $25,000 in 2011.
Daryl Floyd has devoted decades of his life to trying to find his older brother Terry’s body.
He has also done his own detective work to try to establish who abducted and murdered the then 12-year-old Terry Floyd more than 40 years ago.
Mr Floyd believes Terry’s body is at the bottom of the mine and that convicted paedophile Raymond Jones put it there.
Information gathered during recent years has convinced Mr Floyd that a friend of Jones knows Jones did it and helped Jones cover up the crime.
He has passed that evidence to the homicide squad and detectives are actively pursuing it.
Mr Floyd had discovered both Jones and his friend are very familiar with the Morning Star mine at Bung Bong Hill, near Avoca, which is where he thinks Terry’s body is.
The Herald Sun revealed in September 2010 that evidence gathered by Mr Floyd had convinced him to start excavating the mine in the hope of finding his brother’s body.
Police consider paedophile Jones to be the prime suspect in the disappearance of Terry, but they don’t have enough evidence to charge him.
Legal constraints prevent the Herald Sun from being able to reveal details of some of the evidence against Jones.
Jones was out on bail when Terry disappeared on June 28, 1975. He was later convicted of indecently assaulting a boy in a Ballarat toilet block and jailed for two years.
Jones drove a fawn Holden panel van at the time and has admitted to police that he was on the Pyrenees Highway, travelling from Avoca to Maryborough, at the time Terry was seen waiting for a lift on the highway.
Three witnesses have told police they saw a vehicle similar to Jones’s panel van near the boy.
The mine being excavated is very near where a witness saw a parked van matching the description of Jones’s vehicle.
Jones has told the Herald Sun he wasn’t involved in Terry’s disappearance and has nothing to fear from the search for Terry’s body and renewed police interest in him as a suspect.
Mr Floyd believes Jones saw Terry by the side of the Pyrenees Highway and stopped to offer him a lift.
“Jones, by his own admission in his statement to police, was on the road where Terry was standing at the time Terry was waiting for a lift home,” he said.
“Jones says he didn’t see a young boy standing on the side of the road, yet you can’t miss a young boy in that situation — especially when you are a known paedophile like Jones.”
Victoria Police has increased the reward to solve the disappearance of Terry Floyd from $100,000 to $1 million.
Anyone with information on the Terry Floyd case should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppersvic.com.au