New witness comes forward in case of Maureen Braddy and Allan Whyte

After more than 50 years a new witness could shed light on the murders of Maureen Braddy and Allan Whyte.

Maureen Braddy went missing with Allan Whyte in 1968.

A double murder mystery that has haunted two families for more than fifty years has had a significant breakthrough, with a new witness coming forward to police.

In what has been described as a “hopeful breakthrough”, the family of Maureen Braddy say they could be a step closer to finding the long lost teen.

Maureen, 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 have suspected Stanley Braddy, Maureen’s father, of being involved in their deaths.

Stanley Braddy, father of missing teenager Maureen.

Maureen’s sisters, Lyn Ireland (left) and Debra MacDonell, are still searching for justice.

Maureen’s youngest sister Lyn Ireland told a coronial inquest in March 2012 that she had seen her dad and a friend carry a bloodied body through their front yard the night the teens went missing.

She said it was an image that had haunted her since then.

Ms Ireland believes one or both bodies may be buried down a well at the former Braddy home or disposed of in a mine shaft about 100 metres from the house.

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

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

The new witness has told police he spent time with the pair on the morning of the day they disappeared.

Maureen Braddy.

Allan Whyte.

Jodie MacDonell, who is married to Maureen’s nephew, said the new witness had given the family hope that more new information could still be forthcoming.

“It’s really significant because it fills in a missing piece about what happened on the day they were last seen,” Ms MacDonell said.

“It makes you think maybe there is still more information out there,” she said.

“They say it all the time, you know, that you just need that one piece of information and it can turn everything around.”

Ms MacDonell said it was the first new piece of information in many years and police had added it to the missing person’s file, buoying the hopes of both families.

“It’s so important to emphasise that even after 52 years, if you have any information no matter how small or big don’t wait for the police to come knocking on your door.”

“Little by little we are getting the full story.”

The family home of Maureen Braddy.

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

Mr Braddy, who now resides in a nursing home, claimed to the Herald Sun in 2009 that his daughter Maureen and Allan Whyte 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.”

The Herald Sun later tracked down the husband of the dead woman Stan Braddy claimed was Maureen Braddy and discovered the woman had been born and bred in Swan Hill, was not Maureen Braddy and had no connection to either Maureen or Mr Braddy.

Mr Braddy told police in 2012 that he realised later that the dead woman wasn’t Maureen and that one of his son’s 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 that he had nothing to hide.

He also claimed the pair were abducted as part of a slavery trade arrangement.

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