Suspect in puzzling Bendigo murder mystery dies

The only person ever named by police as a suspect in the baffling 1968 murder of Bendigo teens Maureen Braddy and Allan Whyte has died.

Maureen Braddy went missing from Bendigo with Allan Whyte.

The only named suspect in a murder mystery that has haunted two families for more than fifty years has died.

Maureen Braddy, 16, and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Allan Whyte, haven’t been seen since they returned from a bush dance in Bendigo in November 1968.

They were treated as young runaways for decades before police announced they were treating their disappearance as a murder investigation.

For more than a decade police suspected Stanley Braddy, Maureen’s father, of being involved in their deaths.

A coronial inquest was told he and a friend were seen carrying a bloodied body through the Braddy front yard the night the teens went missing.

Mr Braddy died in a Bendigo nursing home on Monday.

Jodie MacDonell, who is married to Maureen’s nephew, said his death would have no impact on ongoing efforts to find the missing teens.

Allan Whyte and Maureen Braddy before their disappearance.

“This is not the way we wanted it to turn out, we were hoping that we would find Maureen and Allan and then Stan Braddy would be charged with their murder,” she said.

“But sadly that’s not how it’s happened.”

A $1m reward remains on offer for any information that might help solve the murder mystery.

Ms MacDonell encouraged anyone with information about the teens’ disappearance to come forward.

“Allan and Maureen...have and always will be our number one priority,” she said.

“I would like to take this opportunity to encourage anyone with information to come forward, especially those that cared for Stan Braddy at BUPA Bendigo.

“You can remain anonymous if preferred...it is time to bring the kids home.”

Family members of the teens have long believed one or both bodies may be buried down a well at the former Braddy home.

The well has since had an extension to the home built over it, with a thick concrete slab.

Members of the Braddy family have made repeated pleas to Victoria Police to uncover the well and search it and the mine.

Lynette Ireland, sister of Maureen, has joined her family to appeal to help solve the mystery.

Stanley Braddy was the only person ever named by police as a suspect for the murder of Maureen and Allan.

Mr Braddy in 2009 claimed to the Herald Sun that his daughter Maureen and Allan had run away together in 1968.

He said Maureen had died in 2008.

“She’s in the Swan Hill cemetery, I know because I went to her funeral,” he claimed.

“That’s where she is — and she’s under a different name.”

Mr Braddy told police in 2012 he realised later that the dead woman wasn’t Maureen and that one of his sons had wrongly convinced him it was Maureen after seeing a photograph of the dead woman’s husband and becoming convinced the dead woman’s husband was Maureen’s boyfriend, Allan Whyte, and that the dead woman must be Maureen.

Mr Braddy told the inquest into his daughter’s disappearance he had nothing to hide.

Police have conceded they bungled the initial missing persons investigation, leaving investigators with little or no evidence to work with.