Jessica GAUDIE
Age:16
Height (cm):
Hair Colour:Red/Ginger
Eye Colour: Brown
Build:Medium
Date of Disappearance:1999
Town/City:Nambour
State:Qld
Country:Australia
Jessica was never seen again after she left home on August 28 1999 to babysit three young children, for Derek Sam's estranged de facto, Mia Summers, who lived a short distance away in Ridgewood Street, Burnside, and wanted to go to a birthday party that evening.
That night, Sam turned up at the same party and was involved in an argument with another man over Mia. He told police he went back to Mia Summers' house and picked up Jessica to ask her to go into the party and get Mia to come home.
He claimed he had dropped Jessica off at the intersection of Bonney and Elizabeth streets, Nambour. Derek Sam has been convicted of Jessica's murder however Jessica is still missing.
If you have any information please contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
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DEREK Sam sat staring at the ground,
then at the ceiling before he said what three desperate families were begging
not to hear.
Asked the direct question _ what had he done with the body of Jessica Gaudie _
Sam remained silent in the witness box for 30 long seconds.
It was a moment of extreme intensity. It was as if no one in the room was able
to take a breath.
Finally, Sam's gaze turned to the police and the families sitting behind them in
the Maroochydore court gallery.
He raised his shoulders slightly into a resigned shrug.
"What can I say?''
The words came out softly after a deep breath, dashing the hopes of three
families who had come to the inquiry hoping to learn the ultimate fate of their
loved ones.
"If that's how it's going to be, I'll die in jail. I cannot put my hand up for a
crime I didn't commit,'' he said.
"I don't care what you people think. My kids are gone. My family's gone. I'm a
puppet on a string. The day I walk out of jail I'm dead. It doesn't matter to
me.''
The man who has been sentenced to life for the killing of the Nambour teenager,
and tops the list of suspects for the disappearance of British backpacker Celena
Bridge and Kenilworth teacher-aid Ann Glassop in 1998 and 1999, said there was
nothing more he could tell.
The response followed a last bid to coax information from the convicted killer.
"I know you want to go up north. You can't get visitors now,'' Shane Panoho, the
police officer assisting the coroner, said.
"I'm sure applications can be made if you help this family (the Gaudies),'' Sgt
Panoho offered. "I don't mind if you consider this an inducement or not.''
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Behind one of the Coast's biggest mysteries
28.04.2007
BACKGROUNDER by Janine Hill Ballina Shire Advocate
WHEN British backpacker Celena Bridge began a hike in the Sunshine Coast
hinterland on a winter's day in 1998, she walked into a mystery that would
envelope two more women and intrigue Australia for the next seven years.
Ms Bridge was the first of three women to go missing on the Coast in a 16 month
period. All of them are now assumed to be dead.
Each was linked in some way to a man named Derek Bellington Sam, although he has
only ever been charged and convicted of one murder, that of teenager Jessica
Gaudie - the last of the three to disappear.
Finding the missing women, or their bodies, has been like looking for a needle
in a haystack for police - without knowing exactly where to find even the
haystack.
In all three cases detectives have been frustrated tracing the women's final
hours, with either no, or hazy, reported sightings to follow up to help pinpoint
a location.
Extensive searches in the Kenilworth area, which involved police camping out
overnight in rough terrain and climbing into ravines, failed to turn up
anything.
Detective Superintendent Mike Condon, of the Brisbane Homicide Squad, said there
were many deep mine shafts in the area that were too dangerous to be searched.
Ms Bridge could have met her fate up to 25 days before anyone realised something
was wrong.
The 28-year-old environmental science graduate was in Australia on a backpacking
trip to study ecosystems and birdlife when she disappeared.
She had stayed two nights at a "commune'' in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, the
Crystal Waters permaculture village at Conondale, before she set off on July 16
to walk to the Little Yabba Creek camping ground at Kenilworth for a bird-
watching meeting the following weekend.
She never arrived.
However, it was not until August 10, when she failed to meet her boyfriend,
Johnathon Webb, when he flew over from England to join her that anyone realised
she was missing.
Searches of the area failed to find any trace of Ms Bridge or her backpack.
Ms Bridge was seen about 3.30pm on July 16 by a resident of Booloumba Creek
Road, and also that afternoon by two men who worked with Derek Sam at Piabun, a
centre for troubled Aboriginal youths, on the same road.
However, unlike his boss Mark Johnson and workmates John Poole and Geoff Turner,
who identified the person they saw as Ms Bridge, Sam told a 2002 coronial
inquest he could not identify the person he saw as male or female, let alone as
Celena Bridge.
That same inquiry also looked into the disappearances of Sabrina Ann Glassop and
Jessica Gaudie. Ms Glassop was known to Sam and the two were rumoured by some to
have been having an affair.
The 47-year-old teacher aid, who lived on the same road as Ms Bridge was last
seen, and the same road as the Piabun centre where Derek Sam worked, disappeared
on May 29, 1999.
Her car was found at the Little Yabba Creek rest area, just a few hundred metres
from her home, where she is believed to have taken her poodle, Poppy, for a
walk.
She had dined with her husband, Eric, the night before. He lived in the
Kenilworth Forestry office and they made arrangements that he would return the
next morning with newspapers and fresh bread for breakfast.
The next morning, Ms Glassop's mother, Joan Worsley, who lived with her husband
in a caravan behind her daughter's house, heard her car leave about 6am or
6.30am.
Mrs Worsley became concerned when her daughter failed to return, leaving the
animals unfed and the gate open. Eric was also concerned when he arrived for
breakfast.
On his way back to the office, he spotted her car. He stopped and noticed it was
locked and the bonnet slightly warm.
As with Ms Bridge, searches for Ann Glassop turned up nothing.
Sam's Piabun colleague, John Poole, later told an inquest that Sam had made lewd
comments about Ms Glassop and boasted of doing some work at a teacher's house
and having a date with one.
Mr Poole told the inquest that a few days after Ms Glassop's disappearance, Sam
had acted strangely during a horse ride, taking different routes through the
bush, and avoiding an area known as Spike's Hut.
Jessica Gaudie went missing almost three months to the day after Ms Glassop
disappeared. However, she was almost instantly linked with Derek Sam, who was
later convicted of her murder.
Jessica was never seen by her family after she left home on August 28 to babysit
three young children, for Derek Sam's estranged de facto, Mia Summers, who lived
a short distance away in Ridgewood Street, Burnside, and wanted to go to a
birthday party that evening.
That night, Sam turned up at the same party and was involved in an argument with
another man over Mia. He told police he went back to Mia Summers' house and
picked up Jessica to ask her to go into the party and get Mia to come home.
He claimed he had dropped Jessica off at the intersection of Bonney and
Elizabeth streets, Nambour.