The family of a Kimberley boy who went missing almost 40 years ago believe one of Australia's most notorious child killers is responsible for his abduction and murder.
Jimmy Taylor was last seen leaving a shop in Derby on August 29, 1974, and was reported to have climbed into a car with a white man.
His family reported him missing one week later.
The mystery has baffled police but the family's recent discovery of a documentary covering the life of Tasmanian child killer James Ryan O'Neill has convinced them he is responsible for Jimmy's disappearance.
O'Neill, who was born Leigh Anthony Bridgart, left a trail of sexual assault allegations in his wake as he moved across Australia in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1971, he was arrested and charged with 12 counts of abducting and indecently assaulting four boys in separate incidents in Melbourne.
He was released on bail and fled to the Kimberley, where he called himself O'Neill.
In late 1974, he moved to Tasmania with his new wife and within months he was arrested over the murders of two young boys. Police believe he tried to abduct at least two other children in the weeks between the separate disappearances.
O'Neill was convicted of murdering the first boy and was not tried for the second after being given a life sentence.
In a statement given to police after O'Neill's arrest, his wife Carol said they had lived in Derby for just a few months from June to November in 1974.
The revelation prompted Jimmy's sister Lynette Henderson-Yates, now deputy vice-chancellor at the Broome campus of the University of Notre Dame, to contact police. She claims they have told her the case is too old to investigate.
"I don't believe he ran away," she said. "The fact that O'Neill arrived in Derby and Jimmy went missing in August is too coincidental.
"The police told Mum that Jimmy had just gone walkabout and they weren't too concerned. That was the attitude in 1974.
"I spoke to the special crime squad about three years ago because they had just been formed to look at special cases.
"They said it was too long ago, but a month later in the newspaper there was a story about them investigating a 19-year-old girl who went missing from Nanutarra Roadhouse the year after Jimmy disappeared.
"I thought, 'Why is that case OK to investigate and Jimmy's case is too old?' There was never even a coronial inquiry. That should have at least been done."
Det-Insp. Casey Prinns, from the special crime squad, said the case had been reviewed and was an ongoing investigation.
He asked anyone with information to contact police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
'The police told Mum that Jimmy had just gone walkabout and they weren't too concerned.' "Sister *Lynette Henderson-Yates *
