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| Celena Bridge |
Celena Bridge, a 28-year-old British backpacker, was the first of the three women to be murdered. Celena was staying at Crystal Waters, a permaculture farm near the township of Conondale, in July 1998 before setting off with her backpack to hitch-hike and walk 20km to the Booloumba Creek camping area, in what is now Conondale National Park. A keen birder, Celena planned to join a Queensland Ornithological Society campout there.
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| Booloumba Creek |
I and two companions were also camped at Booloumba Creek that weekend. We saw a woman about Celena's age camped by herself late on the Friday afternoon preceding the weekend, a short distance upstream from our tents. That was around the time that Celena expected to arrive there. We noticed that her oval tent had a dove, some sort of peace symbol, on it. Some cooking utensils appear to have been recently arranged near the tent door. The woman, crouched as she tinkered with the utensils, was wearing a hooded jacket. There was no vehicle near the tent.
A fair amount of rain fell that evening. From our tent during the night, we heard the sound of a vehicle, possibly a small truck, twice as it drove along the camping area access road.
The next morning, we saw that the woman's tent had been relocated to a more secluded spot in the forest about 100 metres away. The tent was zipped up; there was no sign of the woman or her utensils outside. We did not see her during the rest of the weekend. That Friday afternoon was the last time Celena Bridge was seen.
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| Sabrina Glassop |
The second woman to go missing was a 46-year-old teacher's aide,Sabrina Ann Glassop. Sabrina lived in Booloumba Creek Road - the road leading to the Booloumba Creek camping ground. Sabrina's mother, Joan Worsley, heard her daughter's car speeding away the morning she disappeared. It was found a short distance away on the Maleny-Kenilworth Road, by Little Yabba Creek. Also missing was Sabrina's black poodle, Poppy.
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| Jessica Gaudie |
In August 1999, 16-year-old Nambour schoolgirl Jessica Gaudie disappeared. Jessica was babysitting the children of Mia Summers, the estranged partner of Derek Sam. Sam worked at Piabun, a rehabilitation centre for young Aborigines (since closed) on Booloumba Creek Road. He was known to Sabrina. The bodies of Celena, Sabrina and Jessica have never been found, but Sam was found guilty of Jessica's murder In August 2001 and jailed for 15 years. He will be eligible for parole next year. Maroochydore coroner Paul Johnstone found in November 2002 that there was no direct evidence linking Sam to the murders of Celena and Sabrina.
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| The rugged forests of the Conondale Range |
The search for the bodies has resumed now because for many years police resources were tied up by the search for the murderer of Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe. With that crime resolved and Daniel's murderer behind bars, attention has returned to the three missing females. Last night, the ABC's 7.30 Report featured a lengthy piece on the case. Police are concentrating their search on the steep slopes of the Conondale Range which tower above the Booloumba Creek camping ground.
Detective Sergeant Kim Cavell told the program that the Piabun rehabilitation centre was the last place Celena Bridge was seen as she walked past it on her way to the camping ground. "We believe that she didn't make it to the campsite, that someone has intercepted her and taken her away,." Cavell said, reflecting a finding by the coroner that Celena was abducted somewhere along the 1.5km stretch of road between where she was last seen and the camping ground.
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| Derek Sam - Picture Sunshine Coast Daily |
However, police had been told by me and my two companions about our encounter at the camping ground. They took 10 days to interview us and did so only after we had telephoned them several times. At first, we were uncertain about whether the photographs of Celena that police produced during an interview at my Brisbane home depicted the woman we saw. However, upon reflection, we became more convinced that she quite likely was. Although we could not be certain, police appear to have elected to ignore what could be key evidence. If she had in fact arrived at the camping area; if a vehicle had been driving in and out during the night in the direction of her tent; if her tent had been mysteriously moved during the night....
Nor do police appear to have interviewed an elderly woman who saw Celena walking along Booloumba Creek Road that Friday afternoon. The woman told me that Celena stopped to chat to her. "I told her she was a brave little girl doing that alone," the woman said. "She said she'd had a bit of trouble but only once."
Police did not convey news of our encounter at the camping ground to Celena's family in the United Kingdom, although I publicised it at the time (without quite the same level of detail above) in a feature in The Sydney Morning Herald - see here for the link. Celena's brother, Jason, posted the feature online last July, commenting as he did so: "Its been 14 years since my sister disappeared and most of what is written here I have never heard about. Thank you so much." I did not see that comment until today.