Sarah Anne McMAHON
Name: Sarah
Anne McMAHON
Age when missing: 20 years
Eyes: Green
Hair: Auburn
Height: 173cms
Build: Slim
Circumstances:
Sarah McMahon has not attended work since Wednesday 8
November 2000. Sarah was last seen driving her
vehicle, a 1986 White Ford Meteor Sedan, registered
number 7FO-731 in an easterly direction on Great
Eastern Highway, Greenmount. She was last seen wearing
dark jeans, black turtle neck sweater and black suede
jacket. Concern is held for her safety and welfare.
Sarah McMahon was 20 when she disappeared after leaving
work in the Perth suburb of Claremont on Wednesday, November 8, 2000. She
lived with her parents Danny and Trish and younger sister Kate. Ten days
later, her white Ford Meteor sedan was found in the car park of Swan
Districts Hospital. A bag containing personal items was on the front seat,
her empty wallet was in the boot and her mobile phone was on the ground
nearby. Her mum Trish tells her story ...
"We haven't seen or heard from Sarah since November 8, 2000, when she left
for work in the morning. Apparently she received a call at work from a
friend who was "suicidal" and intended to visit the mysterious caller. The
police believe she's been murdered and we have all tried to accept this as a
possibility, but in our hearts we know she is out there somewhere. At the
time of Sarah's disappearance she was depressed ... a romance had soured,
university had lost its appeal and she had a mobile phone bill for $800 she
hadn't mentioned to us. Sarah felt as though she was in rough waters being
tossed this way and that, and she had mentioned to a family friend that she
wished she could just "go away and start again". We thought a visit to her
older brother Paul and his family, who live near Melbourne, might break the
cycle, but unfortunately that wasn't so. I visited Melbourne and Sydney
putting up posters, giving out photos and talking to anyone who was willing
to listen. Two years ago, a couple who had taken a photograph of Sarah rang
to say they had distributed it at a youth seminar. The father of one of the
children worked in security at Newcastle nightclubs, and he came across a
young man who recognised her and confirmed her name when shown the
photograph. But that was it. There have been no further sightings or news.
We, Sarah's family, believe with all our hearts that our darling daughter,
sister and granddaughter is out there. We will never believe otherwise. We
love you, Sarah, please let us know you're all right. May the sun shine warm
on your face, and until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of His
hand."
If you have any information, call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
Episode 19
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What would you do if someone you loved suddenly disappeared without a trace? That’s the heart-breaking scenario faced by the sisters of missing Perth girls Hayley Dodd and Sarah McMahon. As time passes, Hayley Dodd’s sisters, Rae Ann and Toni, have been forced to accept the worst; that their fragile sister has fallen victim to a serious crime. Kate McMahon firmly believes that her missing sister, Sarah, is still alive but has simply chosen to start a new life in the East.
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Kate McMahon, Sarah McMahon's sister |
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Hayley Dodd |
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Hayley's Dodd's sister, Toni Stephenson |
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GEORGE NEGUS: But not all brothers and sisters, of course, are
quite so lucky. Right now, in the aftermath of the Bali bombing, there
are any number of them bearing probably permanent spiritual and
emotional scars. The brothers, sisters and parents too, of course, of
siblings missing, presumed dead. In this same horrible context Jane
Cunningham recently met a couple of incredibly brave young women living
with a terrible burden virtually impossible to share with anyone else.
JANE CUNNINGHAM: In the vast loneliness of country Western Australia, it
seems that you can disappear without a trace.
NEWSREEL: Volunteer searchers and a ten-person police task force failed
to find any trace of the shy 17-year-old. Hayley Dodd disappeared whilst
hitchhiking near the midwest town of Moora in July 1999.
TONI STEPHENSON, HAYLEY DODD'S SISTER: I didn't want anyone to see me
cry or that I'd been hurt so much. I was angry at the same time - "How
can someone do that? Whoever's done something to her, if they see it on
TV or anything, they won't see me crying, they won't see me hurt or
anything. I won't let them get to me."
JANE CUNNINGHAM: It's been more than three years since Hayley Dodd
vanished. Her heartbroken family have been waiting this long for
answers. They still wait today. There is no absolute way to convey the
depth of the grief felt by the families of missing people, but if you're
watching this in a room with people you love, imagine if one of them,
without warning, completely disappeared. And imagine the pain of never
knowing why.
TONI STEPHENSON: It's a pain that you can't discuss - Unless you've been
through the pain yourself, you can't describe it. No-one else can say,
"I can feel what you're going through," unless they've gone through it
themselves. They can try and imagine what the pain is like, but they
can't imagine what that is, living day in, day out not knowing where she
is, not knowing what she's been doing, what she would be doing now if
she was here. Would she be married and have children, or would she be
going to school, or would she be going to uni or have a job? What would
she be doing? Would she be travelling round Australia? You wonder all
the time.
JANE CUNNINGHAM: As time passes, Hayley's sisters Toni and Rae Ann have
been forced to accept the worst, that Hayley has fallen victim to a
serious crime. They have all but given up hope that they'll ever see her
alive again.
TONI: Every time they find a body, on TV or anything, I always just hope
that it is. People say, "Why do you hope it's your sister? "Don't you
want her to come home?" But I know she's not coming home, so for her
body to be found is more important.
JANE CUNNINGHAM: Do you ever sort of think about what might have
happened?
RAE ANN DODD, HAYLEY DODD'S SISTER: Oh, sometimes I do. When I see
people being raped and stuff on the news, that makes me think about it.
That makes me upset to think people can do that to other people -
especially when they've done it to your sister, if that's what's
happened.
TONI: I cry myself to sleep at night at least twice a week, because I'm
just, like, I want my sister back.
RAE ANN: We usually go down to her wishing well. I wish she'd come back
safe and sound, but not much chance of that happening. And I don't
really wish that much at the wishing well.
JANE CUNNINGHAM: 15-year-old Kate McMahon has spent the past two years
without her sister Sarah. Like the families of more than 30,000
Australians who go missing every year, she faces the agony of waiting
and hoping.
KATE McMAHON, SARAH McMAHON'S SISTER: It happens to everyone else's
family but not yours. And I think the reality of it happening to your
own family, it's - it's quite a bit of a shock.
JANE CUNNINGHAM: There were no warning signs. One typically sunny
November day in Perth, Sarah McMahon simply didn't come home. Suddenly,
and very traumatically, that special bond between Kate and her sister
was severed.
KATE: It's left a huge gap. I miss her so much. I just, um, I just think
of how good friends we were just becoming then and how good friends we
could be - how much good friends we could be now. 13 years with someone
else in a - in a, um, house - everything was together. And now that
suddenly was just cut short. My childhood, sort - sort of has been, um,
marred, I guess you could say, by this whole situation. And, um, it's -
it's hard. There's some days you don't want to get out of bed or go to
school, but I think you have to make yourself do these things, um, for,
um, yourself and just to, um, get Preoccupied.
JANE CUNNINGHAM: The year before she disappeared, Sarah's mum Trish, a
school drama teacher, wrote a play about the devastated family of a
missing girl. In a strange twist of fate, it was Sarah's sister Kate who
played the missing girl, rehearsing the role and then comforting a
family grieving from the same scenario. Do you visualise her coming
home?
KATE: Yes. A lot.
JANE CUNNINGHAM: Do you?
KATE: Every day, you wake up, you think, "This could be the day. It
could be the day she might come strolling through." I just think she's
gonna come just wandering down the driveway, walking through the door,
acting like nothing's happened. I just think that's how she'll do it.
JANE CUNNINGHAM: Kate's play does have a happy ending. The missing girl
comes home. In reality, though, her turmoil continues.
KATE: Until someone gives me evidence or tells me that Sarah is for
sure, it's 100 per cent positive, that something - Sarah has passed
away, something has happened, I don't think I will ever believe on - on
word of mouth, I suppose, from the police.
If you have any information that you think might help trace either
Hayley or Sarah, please go to http://www.wa.crimestoppers.com.au/reporting/section
or call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 (Tasmania 1800 005 555)
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