These images released by Police show the house in Wollstonecraft, on Sydney's North Shore, which Linda shared with her boyfriend and other flatmates. The second image is a letter she sent to boyfriend Stephen Lavender explaining she was going away for a few days.

Linda Davie was last seen on 6 April 1980, when she visited her boy friend at the Royal North Shore Hospital. She apparently returned home that evening, but has not been seen since.

Rewards offered for cold cases

April 11, 2010 - 1:54PM

AAP - SMH

Rewards of $100,000 are being offered for information leading to a conviction in two historic suspected murder cases.

Tanya Farrington and Linda Suzanne Davie both disappeared in suspicious circumstances more than 30 years ago and are presumed by police to have been murdered.

NSW Detective Sergeant Robert George responded to media reports that police were investigating possible links between the girls and notorious criminals including underworld identity John Anderson, serial killer Ivan Milat and New Zealander "Mr Asia" drug syndicate head Terry Clark.

"Any suggestion of those links is just speculation," he told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

Tanya was 14 when she went missing from her Crows Nest home on Sydney's north shore on March 22, 1979, he said.

She was last seen by her brother watching TV late at night in the family home but was gone when her mother woke up in the morning.

Ms Davie, then 22, has not been seen since she returned to her north shore Wollstonecraft home after visiting her boyfriend in Royal North Shore Hospital on April 6, 1980.

The New Zealander's boyfriend received a letter saying that she would be away until the following week - she was never seen again.

Neither of the women had any reason to deliberately disappear, Det Sgt George said.

"They have not contacted their families in over 30 years," he said.

"We presume that what has happened to them is a result of murder or foul play."

NSW Police Minister Michael Daley said Tanya often snuck out at night and may have hitchhiked to Manly to spend time with friends.

"I'd urge anyone who saw Tanya that night, or might have information about her disappearance to come forward," he told reporters.

Police would also like to speak to Tanya's boyfriend at the time and two men who are believed to have driven Ms Davie and a friend home from Kings Cross on April 5, 1980.

Police are asking anyone with information to call crime stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Pair sought in case of missing model

Kirsty Johnston10:46, Jul 30 2011 Stuff

RIDE HOME: Computer-generated images of two men who Sydney police say gave Linda Davie a ride home before she disappeared.

More than 30 years after budding Kiwi model Linda Davie disappeared from her Sydney home, police have made public images of the men who may be able to solve the mystery.

Australian police say the two men in the computer-generated images were among the last people to see the 22-year-old, but they have never come forward to talk to police.

Miss Davie, from Whakatane, disappeared on April 6, 1980, after visiting her partner in a Sydney hospital. She left only a letter, which her partner received three days later.

The note – which police believed may have been forced – said Miss Davie would be away for a couple of days.

However, when her partner returned to their Sydney home on April 15, the couple's bed had not been slept in and Miss Davie's possessions were untouched.

Miss Davie's case was reopened last year with a A$100,000 reward for information that would solve the cold case.

Detective Sergeant Robert George, of New South Wales, said the images of the two men had been made public in the hope that it might spark someone's memory.

"There's nothing to implicate either male. However, given their involvement with her in the 24 hours leading up to her disappearance, we'd like to speak with them about the night," Mr George said.

Miss Davie met the two men the night before she disappeared, while out with a friend in Kings Cross. The men later gave Miss Davie a ride home.

Searches at the time failed to find the men. These are the first computer-generated pictures of them to be made public.

Stephen Lavender, her partner at the time, urged anyone with information to come forward.

"It's taken a huge amount of time to get this far. It's Linda's time now to get some sort of closure," Mr Lavender said. "It's been 31 years now. We know nothing after all these years. But I bet someone does, somewhere."

Brother Nigel Davie, of Edgecumbe, said anything that could help bring closure for the family was appreciated. "I hope it can help. Anything that can help needs to be out there."

The first man was described as 5ft 10in to 5ft 11in (1.77 metres to 1.8m), 25 years old, of slim build, with a fair complexion, longish hair in a ponytail, hazel eyes and an oval face.

He was wearing a watch and said he was from Melbourne.

The second man was described as 5ft 8in (1.72m) tall, 25 years old, medium build, medium complexion, a rounded face, curly collar-length hair, and a pointed nose. He was wearing a gold-coloured chain and said he was from Sydney. He owned a pale yellow four-door Japanese car, possibly a Datsun.

Police are still working on the case of a second New Zealand woman who went missing from Sydney in similar circumstances in 1980.

Marion Sandford was aged 24 when she left a note at her brother's flat in Sydney's North Shore to say she was with friends and would be gone a few days. She never returned.

Police are considering whether the two cases may be linked.

'It's the not knowing really ...': Marion and Linda still missing after 31 years

Kirsty Johnston Wollondilly Advertiser OCTOBER 28 2011 - 1:12AM

Time and hope are running out for the families of two missing New Zealand women as police move to close their 31-year investigations.

Coroners' hearings will be held this summer for Marion Sandford and Linda Davie, who vanished within weeks of each other in Sydney in 1980.

Believing their disappearances could be linked, Australian police reopened the cases, along with that of a third woman, in 2007.

The women went missing almost without trace, leaving only haunting letters and rumours they had been caught up in the Mr Asia drug trade.

Police now believe those rumours to be untrue, but the renewed investigation provided a last hope for two families who had gone decades without answers.

It now seems that unless extra information is received before the hearings, they may gain little apart from a legal decision saying the women are dead.

“It's difficult for us because one part of us is hoping we're going to get some sense of understanding about what happened to Marion,” said Ms Sandford's brother, Peter Sandford.

“On the other side of it, we've been waiting a long time. It's the not knowing really … It's simply not knowing is the hardest part of it.”

Mystery letters

Marion Sandford, who grew up in Auckland, was 23 when she mailed a letter to her brother's Cammeray flat in Sydney's North Shore on January 24, 1980, to say she was with friends and would be gone a few days.

Despite the family's hopes she would reappear, she never returned.

Ten weeks later, Linda Davie's boyfriend, Stephen Lavender, found a similar note explaining the 22-year-old's absence when he returned from a short hospital stay.

Like Sandford the aspiring model, who grew up in Whakatane, was not seen again.

The two young Kiwis lived just kilometres from where Australian Tanya Farrington, 14, disappeared from her family home in the suburb of Crow's Nest a year earlier.

The officer in charge of the new investigation, Detective Senior Sergeant Robert George, said although there were similarities between the cases, a firm link had still to be established.

“We haven't tracked down any witnesses after the time they disappeared,” he said.

“That's been a real stumbling block to our investigation.”

Detective Senior Sergeant George said police did not believe either woman was involved with the Terry “Mr Asia” Clark drug syndicate.

“We can rule out that. Terry Clark was in custody in 1979 and the girls didn't go missing until 1980.”

He said Ms Sandford, who had worked as a prostitute, was involved in the drug scene and there was evidence she was planning to import drugs.

“She was involved with high-risk activities. Carrying drugs, anything could have happened,” he said.

No traces of either woman were found.

Detective Senior Sergeant George this year released identikit photos of two men believed to have been with Ms Davie the night before she disappeared. Police still do not know who the men were.

Other unanswered questions remain about a witness, possibly an Air New Zealand employee, who came forward in 1980 claiming to have sat next to Ms Davie on a flight to Christchurch.

“If it was Linda, that would be the last report we have of her. Unfortunately, the witness has not come forward again since,” Detective Senior Sergeant George said.

“It will always be relevant to us”

Both families, and the police, strongly believe the women met with foul play.

Ms Davie's brother, Nigel Davie, of Edgecumbe, said although it was almost certain his sister would be declared dead by a coroner at a hearing in December, he was hoping for more.

“It would be a late punishment but whoever did it should be punished, I reckon. You don't do that thing in the world and not be punished,” he said.

“It's time to clear their conscience really, to get some closure for all us brothers. And for mum and dad.”

Mr Davie said the case was still worth investigating, even after so many years.

“How long do you go before it becomes irrelevant? It will always be relevant to us.”

Peter Sandford said the family found the circumstances of his sister's disappearance “hopeless”.

“Socially, I've found it very difficult to explain to people about our loss. It's not dinner-party conversation, is it? It's not something you go shouting about and waving a flag about,” he said.

They family had never held a memorial because they felt they knew so little about what happened.

“There was nothing we could offer to people. That's a difficult part of it,” Sandford said.

“We really still do hope for an answer that would lead us to find where Marion may be so we can bring her back home.”

Kiwi model's 1980 disapperance in Sydney

15:32, Dec 13 2011 Sydney Morning Herald and Fairfax NZ

A budding Kiwi model who disappeared in Sydney more than 30 years ago was a naive person who trusted people too much, an inquest has been told.

The long-awaited coronial inquiry into the disappearance of Linda Davie, from Whakatane, heard yesterday that the 22-year-old was last seen by her boyfriend, Stephen Lavender, on April 6, 1980, when she came to visit him in hospital.

A few days later, Lavender received a hastily written letter from his girlfriend, saying that she would be "going away for a few days".

That was the last time anyone heard from her.

When Davie's housemates returned home after the 1980 Easter weekend, they found the light on in her room and virtually all of her possessions there, but no sign of the woman.

The Sydney-based inquiry heard that police have had a series of leads and pieces of intriguing information since the disappearance, but that none had shed light on her fate.

This included an apparent sighting of Davie soon after her disappearance by a woman claiming to have sat next to her on a flight back to New Zealand.

The inquiry heard that the woman said Davie had told her she was "sick of Steve and was moving back to New Zealand for good".

However, the contact phone number and address the woman gave to police did not exist, leading to suspicions that the sighting itself was a fake.

A friend, Annette Lees, told the inquest how, at a party more than a year before Davie's disappearance, a man had said that the 22-year-old was "too trusting" and would be "easy to murder".

When a second friend, Marjorey McMillan, took the stand, she told how Davie often hitchhiked, ABC news reported.

McMillan said she and Ms Davie holidayed in Greece where they caught rides with strangers almost every day.

She gave details of two specific occasions where the two women found themselves in worrying situations.

One incident involved two men driving the women to a remote area instead of taking them back to the village where they were staying as they had requested.

Outside the Coroner's Court in Glebe, former boyfriend Stephen Lavender told how he’d tried to get police to help find Davie after she disappeared.

"I loved her very much - I used to run home along the rail tracks every afternoon to see her,” Lavender said.

"We really don't know what happened - it's like she just disappeared off the face of the earth."

The inquest continues.

Missing NZ nurse linked to other cases

An inquest has heard a New Zealand nurse who disappeared from Sydney's North Shore in 1980 has been linked to two other missing women.

New Zealand woman Marion Sandford was last seen in her brother's unit at Cammeray in January 1980.

Glebe Coroner's Court heard the Auckland-born woman had convictions for possessing heroin and may have been offered thousands of dollars to traffic drugs between Australia and Asia.

The court heard Ms Sandford may have been introduced to heroin while training to be a nurse in New Zealand, and she later worked as a prostitute in Sydney's Kings Cross to pay for her habit.

Counsel assisting the coroner Sophia Beckett said the inquest would look at the vulnerable position Ms Sandford was put in through her work on the streets of Kings Cross.

The court heard allegations that on one occasion she was abducted and gang-raped by four men.

The inquest is to determine if Ms Sandford is dead and if her disappearance was related to the cases of other women who went missing in Sydney around the same time.

It will look at relationships she may have had with Sydney crime identities she came into contact with.

Similarities

Detective Sergeant Robert George, who has been working on the case since 2008, said the disappearance has been linked with two other women, Linda Davie and Mary Wallace.

"The similarities are the geographical area where they all disappeared along with the ages and general description of the females," he told the court.

Ms Davie, 22, who wanted to be a model, moved from New Zealand to live with her boyfriend in 1980.

Ten weeks after Ms Sanford's disappearance, Ms Davie posted a letter to her boyfriend saying she was going away for a few days. She also never returned home.

Today Mr MacMahon thanked Ms Sandford's family members who have travelled from New Zealand for being in court.

He apologised to them for the lengthy time lapse between the disappearance and the inquest.

Outside court her brother Peter said the family did not want to comment on the case until the coroner had finished his investigation.

New Zealand Police are assisting New South Wales Police with the investigation into the disappearance of New Zealander Linda Suzanne Davie.

http://www.missing.org.nz/groups/profile/216

Reward 30 years on for details on Marion Sandford