Mysterious disappearance of young Burnie mum Helen Munnings becomes murder investigation

A DECADE-long missing person case has become a murder investigation on the back of fresh leads about the disappearance of a young mum.

Helen Munnings, pictued with son Donovan, was pregnant when she went missing from Burnie in 2008.

A DECADE-long missing person case has become a murder investigation on the back of fresh leads about the disappearance of young Burnie mother Helen Munnings.

Key dates JULY 25, 2008: Helen Munnings reported missing after she fails to pick up her son Donovan from childcare. JULY 31, 2008: Police take their search for the young Burnie mother to the streets, hoping a mannequin dressed like Helen Munnings would jog someone’s memory. AUGUST 2008: Police divers from Hobart scour the waters off South Burnie beach where investigators say she was last seen after ground, air and surface water searches had not shed any light on their three-week investigation. MAY 2009: Tasmania Police put up a $50,000 reward for information to find Helen. Detective Inspector Adrian Shadbolt said police believed Ms Munnings was dead. JUNE: 2009: Police divers venture into waters of Lake Kara as the search intensifies. JUNE 2009: A flyer with the Tasmania Police logo is put in letterboxes around Burnie calling for information on Helen’s disappearance. The unsanctioned flyer claimed a man, who was named, had admitted to driving around with Helen the day she went missing. JULY 23, 2009: A mystery Burnie businessman puts up an extra $50,000 to help police solve the year-long investigation. NOVEMBER, 2011: An inquest into her presumed death begins. JUNE, 2012: Coroner Robert Pearce finds Helen is dead but said there was no evidence to show how she died or where her body might be located.

Detective Inspector Rob Gunton told the ABC today the Cold Case unit had identified a number of new leads and was investigating the case as a murder.

Detective Gunton also said the police had a person of interest in that investigation.

A $100,000 reward still stands for information which leads to Ms Munnings’ body being found.

Helen Munnings was just 20, a mother of a two-year-old boy and pregnant with another child when she went missing from Burnie in 2008.

The inquest into her disappearance and presumed death four years later failed to shed any new light on how or where she died.

In handing down his findings into Helen Munnings’ disappearance, Coroner Robert Pearce urged the police to keep the investigation open.

Mr Pearce found Ms Munnings was dead but he had no evidence to say how she died or where her body might be located.

Mr Pearce said he could not rule out that Ms Munnings was murdered, but there was no direct evidence that someone else had contributed to her death.

He did, however, rule out speculation that Ms Munnings staged her own disappearance and was alive and well outside of Tasmania.

At the time, Ms Munnings’ mother, Karel Black, accused Tasmania Police of botching the investigation into her daughter’s death and failing to find enough evidence to either locate Helen or the person who may have killed her.

Helen Munnings’ mother Karel Black was highly critical of the police investigation into the disappearance of her daughter.

Ms Black did not answer the Mercury’s calls today.

``Losing Helen has been a horrible experience,’’ Ms Black said after the inquest.

Mr Pearce said he was satisfied Ms Munnings was dead and that she died in the Burnie area.

Adam Taylor, the father of Ms Munnings’ then two-year-old son Donovan and her unborn child, was the last person to see her alive.

Mr Pearce found there was no evidence to corroborate Mr Taylor’s account that he dropped off Ms Munnings near the Burnie paper mill on the day she was last seen.

But he said there was also no evidence to link Mr Taylor to Ms Munnings’ death.