Police renew calls for information into Lucille Butterworth case on 55th anniversary of disappearance
UPDATED: Fifty-five years ago, a young beauty queen went missing from a Hobart bus stop. Police have now renewed calls for information into the suspected murder of Lucille Butterworth.
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It’s been 55 years since Hobart model Lucille Gaye Butterworth disappeared from a bus stop at Claremont, in what has become one of Tasmania’s most notorious and tragic cold cases.
On Friday, Tasmania Police renewed its call for information on the anniversary of Ms Butterworth’s disappearance, who was believed to have been murdered on August 25, 1969.
Police also revealed they had received new information, with witnesses coming this year over people previously mentioned in a 2016 coronial inquest.
Detective Inspector Mark Burke, from Glenorchy CIB, said that information was still being investigated.
“We’ve certainly had new information since the coronial, we’ve been investigating those enquiries since then,” he said.
He also said police were not investigating Charles Geoffrey Hunt, who Coroner Simon Cooper found picked Ms Butterworth up in an “old bomb” Holden, strangled her, then disposed of her body along the Derwent River – halfway between Granton and New Norfolk.
Mr Hunt has denied any involvement with Ms Butterworth’s death, and Det Insp Burke said no new evidence had arisen in relation to him.
Ms Butterworth’s last surviving immediate relative – her brother John Butterworth – told the Mercury that “not a day goes by that I don’t think about it”.
“It makes me angry,” the 70-year-old said.
“I’ve got two photographs up on the wall of Lucille … I talk to her. It’s something I’m never going to let go.”
Mr Butterworth said the tragedy had “taken” both his parents and his brother Jim, and that their father had been left “absolutely destroyed”.
He said he had done everything he could as a lay person over the years, diving in the River Derwent and digging through bushland to find his sister’s remains.
He said it was “absolutely terrific” to hear that witnesses had come forward – and that he hoped his sister’s murderer would be brought to justice in his lifetime.
He said mistakes in the investigation and prosecution of his sister’s case was the reason it was still unsolved, some 55 years later.
“It’s pretty upsetting because I was 15 at the time. Lucille was 20,” he said.
“So I really didn’t know my sister. And it’s very, very difficult for me to accept that and try to understand that. Maybe now I would have been quite close to my sister.”
Det Insp Burke said he was unable to provide any more detail about the new information that police had received.
However, he said he had no doubt that someone in the Hobart community knew what had happened to Ms Butterworth.
“Oh most definitely. We believe there’s people in the community who know what’s happened to Lucille in relation to her disappearance and we’d like to hear from them,” he said.
“This is a tragic case that has caused the family a massive amount of pain and suffering over an extended period.
“We’d certainly like to solve this case to get justice for Lucille, and also some sort of closure for her family.”
Det Insp Burke said Ms Butterworth was last seen about 6pm on the day in question, wearing orange work clothes and a dark jacket or coat – but extensive searches over the years had found no trace of her.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Glenorchy CIB on 131 444. or Crime Stoppers Tasmania on 1800 333 000 or via crimestopperstas.com.au
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