Dennis French charged with murdering ex-partner Cheryl Ardler

Cheryl Ardler’s ex-boyfriend has been charged with her murder more than six years after she was killed. The Cranebrook woman’s mother has today issued a heartbreaking family statement following the arrest.

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Cheryl Ardler’s ex-boyfriend has been charged with her murder more than six years after the Sydney woman went missing.

Dennis French appeared in Penrith Local Court today on one count of murder for Ms Ardler’s 2012 death.

Her family sat in the back of the courtroom, one woman using a handkerchief to soak up her tears and another with her hands clasped together in front of her.

Ms Ardler, 41, was last seen in an alleyway near a bus stop on Greenhalg Rd, Cranebrook in early December 2012. Her bones were found just streets away in May last year.

Dennis French.

A 2016 coronial inquest into her disappearance found that she had died between December 5 and Christmas Day.

At the inquest, French’s niece Letisha Wright and her partner Sean Carpenter gave evidence about violence inflicted by French on Ms Ardler.

Other witness statements from the inquest claimed that in the weeks leading up to Ms Ardler’s disappearance French was seen punching Ms Ardler in the mouth, beating her with a stick and stabbing her in the mouth with a fork.

Cheryl Ardler

Deputy State Coroner Magistrate Teresa O’Sullivan said witness statements revealed a “chilling” and “violent” relationship between Ms Ardler and the “extremely violent and dangerous” French.

The inquest also found Ms Ardler was last seen with French by neighbour Kelly Nixon.

“She said she was 100 per cent sure it was Cheryl,” the findings read.

“Cheryl had a black eye and ‘busted lip’.

Ms Ardler moved to Penrith from Brewarrina in 2010 after her partner of 18 years, Elwood Clarke, died of illness.

It was two years later that she began a relationship with French in 2012 and moved in with him. They had been together for more than six months before she was killed.

Cheryl Ardler’s body was recovered last year.

Originally published as Dennis French charged with murdering ex-partner Cheryl Ardler