Daughter's Double Life Leaves Family Stunned

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday August 4, 1989

Sandra Harvey

TO HER family, Jaki Lee Walsh, 21, was a quiet, well adjusted young woman. She loved to read and weave tapestries, often preferring her own company to a crowd of friends.

After working as a volunteer nursing aide at a nursing home in Gerringong last year, she found work at the Bluehaven Retirement Village in Kiama earning $250 a week. She loved her job and was well liked by both staff and patients.

According to police, Jaki Lee Walsh was an amphetamines supplier who bought at least 15 grams of the drug each week to support her own drug habit and to supply several local users.

In April this year, Jaki Lee disappeared. Less than a week later, her car -the inside of the boot caked in dried blood - was found abandoned in a council car park at nearby Warrawong.

As detectives began piecing together the young woman's last known movements they discovered a lifestyle completely at odds with the one Jaki's parents still believe their daughter led.

And, what began as a local inquiry into a missing person, soon expanded into a full-scale murder and drug squad investigation which has uncovered a major amphetamines racket operating in the sleepy South Coast hamlet of Kiama

On April 13, the night before she vanished, Jaki Lee and her 29-year-old boyfriend visited one of their regular haunts, the Tory's Hotel at Kiama.

They were familiar faces at the pub and on that evening collected $2,000 from customers placing orders for amphetamines which Jaki was to supply the next day.

Sometime later that evening, one of Jaki's drug suppliers - a woman from Shellharbour - rang her at the William Street flat in Kiama where Jaki had lived for nine months with her boyfriend. The two women arranged to go to Sydney the next morning to do some shopping. Police believe they intended to buy drugs.

Later still, Jaki changed her mind and decided instead to visit another of her suppliers, a man living in Moss Vale. With the help of her boyfriend, she created an alibi to tell the first supplier that the clutch in her car had broken and she would be delayed getting to Shellharbour.

On Friday, Jaki woke to the beginning of her weekend. She had two rostered days off and was not due back at Bluehaven until Sunday at 3pm.

She dressed in blue-striped stretch jeans, a pink tank top and calf-length boots before she drove her boyfriend to work shortly before 8am.

Three hours later, Jaki arrived at the Moss Vale supplier's home. She had changed her clothes and was wearing black jeans and a black Harley Davidson T-shirt.

At Moss Vale, she purchased 15 grams of speed for $400. Sometime that day she had one hit, and left at 3.45pm, saying she was going back to see the other supplier at Shellharbour. But Jaki never arrived there.

According to her boyfriend, she didn't go home that night, or the following night. Except for two brief unconfirmed sightings the next afternoon at the Group Seven Leagues Club at Kiama, Jaki hasn't been seen since.

Five days later, one of her cousins noticed Jaki's red Torana sitting in a council car park opposite the Open Hearth Hotel at Warrawong. Detectives believe it was left there some time on the weekend after she disappeared. A large amount of blood was found in the boot and under the body of the car.

Blood samples from both Jaki's parents are consistent with the blood type found in the car. Forensic testing suggests Jaki bled to death in the boot before her body was removed while the car's exterior show that it was driven along a dirt road after the body had been removed from the boot.

Detective Sergeant Stan Neal, who has been with the investigation since April, says Jaki's disappearance uncovered a well-organised amphetamines trade operating in Kiama.

"We were astounded at the amount of amphetamines in the area," he said.

"Kiama is a sleepy town and we had no idea that that so many youths were using speed there. It appears that the Wollongong district is divided into three drug areas: Port Kembla has a heroin problem, cocaine is used in the Austinmer district and Kiama appears to have an amphetamine trade."

For two months, three drug squad detectives from Sydney joined the investigation team at Warilla police station.

They discovered 12 established amphetamine suppliers operating in the area and several people have since been arrested and charged with possession.

The Moss Vale supplier, the last person known to have seen Jaki, has been charged and convicted of supplying drugs to her.

"Jaki was a go-between, a small time supplier but well known to a number of dealers in the area."

Detective Neal also said there are varying accounts about the amount of money Jaki was carrying when she vanished. It could have been as much as$10,000, he said.

For Jaki's family, the police scenario of Jaki's lifestyle has been a devastating shock. Her elderly relatives still refuse to accept that Jaki was involved in drugs.

Her mother, Mrs Sue Walsh, is also sceptical.

"It just doesn't add up," she says.

"When I went to clean out the flat and collect Jaki's things, I found six books on health and fitness and looking after your body. We were told she had a $200-a-week habit. I still find that really, really hard to believe."

Mrs Walsh said both she and her husband had a good relationship with their daughter. She called in at their home at least twice a week, usually on her days off, and she and her mother often went shopping together.

"The last time I saw her she had her hair pulled back in a ponytail - she'd just left work - and her skin looked beautiful. She was glowing with health.

"Sometimes I look at her photograph and say: How did this happen to you, Jaki? What went wrong?

"Sometimes I think it would never have happened if she hadn't moved out of home, but I still never noticed any evidence of drugs. She was a level-headed, sensible girl."

For Mrs Walsh and her husband, the discovery of Jaki's car confirmed that"something terrible" had happened to their daughter.

"That week-long wait before they found her car was the hardest."

The Walsh family plans to move soon into their new home which is being built in Kiama. With Jaki's birthday in two weeks' time, they see a sad time ahead.

Police to review 1989 disappearance and probable murder of Kiama woman

Jackie-Lee Walsh was last seen by her boyfriend on the morning of April 14, 1989, when she dropped him off at work. Six days later her car was found parked outside a pub with a pool of blood left in the boot. NSW Police are now set to conduct a review into the 22-year-old’s disappearance and suspected murder.

Before her disappearance, Jackie-Lee lived in Kiama with her boyfriend, and worked at a nearby nursing home. At the time, the 22-year-old was described by family as a quiet well-liked woman.

However, during the investigation into her disappearance and probable murder, police discovered Jackie-Lee was living a life very different to what her family had described.

In tracing her last known movements, police alleged Jackie-Lee was a drug-dealer and had gone to a house in Moss Vale to buy drugs around 3pm, but never returned to Kiama where she was set to meet a friend.

Jackie-Lee’s case is one of about 500 cold case homicides in NSW from the past 40 years that will be looked at with fresh eyes and cutting edge technology, as police attempt to catch the killers.

Last year, the state’s homicide squad announced it would begin assessing unsolved matters under a new framework for prioritising them.

A NSW Police Force spokesman said the investigation into the 1989 disappearance and suspected murder of Jackie Walsh remains open “under the responsibility of the Homicide Squad’s Unsolved Homicide Unit”, which was established in 2004.

“The matter is expected to undergo a formal review under the new framework in the near future and this process can take a number of months,” they said.

A review into the disappearance of 15-year-old Kathleen Harris is also set to take place in the “coming months”, according to police.

Kathleen disappeared from the South Coast town of Huskisson in 1999 and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. She was last seen by her friend Clinton Hanlon, a Rebels bikie associate at her Keppel Street home on May 31, 1999, and was later reported missing by her father.

Police have urged anyone with information that may assist investigators to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.