Cold Case Files: Belinda Williams snatched from bed, murdered as cops finger suspect she knew
BELINDA Williams was last seen alive by her daughter, before her body was found in the scrub still in her pyjamas. Cops say they know her killer. | Cold Case Files
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DETECTIVES investigating the death of a young mum who vanished into the night after lying next to her young daughter believe she was killed by someone she knew.
There’d been no inkling bubbly separated mum Belinda Williams feared anybody or was worried for her safety in the lead up to her death.
But maybe she should have been fearful.
“The offender is believed to be known to Belinda,” Acting Det-Insp Boris Buick, of the Victoria Police cold case squad, told the Herald Sun.
“Investigators have a suspect in mind (but) evidence is lacking.”
On her last night alive the loving mum entertained some girlfriends at her Buninyong home, just south of Ballarat.
During that wintry evening, on June 25, 1999, Ms Williams’ daughter, 6, became frightened in the dark, stepped from her bed and wandered into the loungeroom.
Ms Williams comforted her daughter, tucked her back into bed and promised to lie with her when the guests had gone home.
And that’s exactly what Ms Williams did.
When she awoke the next morning, her mother was not lying next to her.
Her mother was not in the house.
Ms Williams, 36, was nowhere to be found.
No possessions had been taken, Ms Williams’ car was in the driveway and there were no signs of forced entry.
The frightened girl made a phone call to her dad, David Coventry.
Ms Williams and Mr Coventry had separated amicably after a long relationship and remained good friends.
Mr Coventry soon arrived at Ms Williams’ home and, after searching fruitlessly for two hours, called police.
As the days went on Ms Williams’ bank accounts remained untouched, a telltale sign a missing person has met with foul play.
Ms Williams’ mother, Shirley Macey, and brother, Bruce Williams, said they were clinging to the faint hope Ms Williams had run away but did not really believe she would abandon her little girl.
“Anything could have happened to her, we just don’t know,” Det-Insp Brian Rix said at the time.
“It’s a complete mystery at this stage.”
Police, State Emergency Services volunteers, family, friends and locals all joined forces and carried out a widespread search.
Day and night they scoured bushland and old mine shafts.
Eleven days after Ms Williams disappeared, a pair of local bushwalkers discovered her body, dressed only in a nightshirt, dumped in scrub on Mt Buninyong.
The bushwalkers had noticed a black T-shirt hanging on a bush by the side of the road before locating Ms Williams’ body 15m downhill in knee-high scrub.
No effort had been made to conceal her.
The bushwalkers told police they did not see the T-shirt during their walks on the mountain in the days before the discovery.
Police identified the T-shirt as owned by Ms Williams, and believed the killer could have planted it as a clue to the body’s location because the dead woman had not been found earlier.
That suggested the killer may have had a guilty conscience.
One theory was that Ms Williams was killed in a fit of rage at her home by someone she knew.
But Ms Macey floated the possibility someone holidaying in the area might have followed her daughter home on one of her daily walks or bike rides.
“You just think about her dying in terror and fear. It’s been hell on earth,’’ Ms Macey told the Herald Sun in June 2000.
“She was such a beautiful mother. (She) is lucky that way, she has got lovely memories and she is always talking about her mum.
“The saddest thing is that (she) will grow up without a mother.”
She also pleaded for anyone with knowledge to come forward.
“Why would anyone cover up for somebody who is obviously evil?” she said.
“We want them to please contact police.”
In a desperate bid to help solve the case, Ms Macey contacted a renowned Brisbane psychic.
The psychic told Ms Macey a woman was protecting a male killer.
In the weeks after the murder, an anonymous woman delivered to the Ballarat police station a letter containing details about the crime.
Police urged her to make further contact.
She did, claiming to be a clairvoyant.
The woman had no vital new information.
With leads having led to dead ends, in December 2007 police announced a $500,000 reward for information.
“Someone must know something and we hope half a million dollars will bring them out of the woodwork,’’ Ms Macey said after the reward was announced.
This case remains unsolved.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
paul.anderson@news.com.au
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