Age at time of disappearance: 16 years
Build: Slim
Height: 157 cm
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Unknown
Distinguishing Features/Other:
Circumstances:
Megan Mulquiney commenced work at 8:25am on Saturday 28 July 1984 at Woolworths Big W, Woden Shopping Square, Canberra ACT. She ceased duty at 12:05pm and was later seen inside the Shopping Square about 12:15pm. She has not been seen since. Her mother stated that it was totally out of character for Megan to stay out late without contacting her.

A public hearing, for the purposes of the inquest held into the suspected death of Megan Louise Mulquiney (“Megan”), was conducted by the then Chief Coroner, Mr R J Cahill. Unfortunately, Mr Cahill was unable to complete the inquest and make the necessary findings prior to his sudden retirement due to ill-health.

Having considered the oral evidence and extensive documentary evidence presented at the public hearing, and the submissions made by Counsel Assisting, Ms Margaret Hunter, I am satisfied that I have sufficient information to enable me to make the findings required by

s.52(1) of the Coroners Act 1997 (“the Act”) and thus to conclude the inquest in my capacity as a coroner appointed under the Act.

By virtue of s.13(1)(c) of the Act, a Coroner must hold an inquest into the manner and cause of death of a person who dies, or is suspected to have died, a sudden death the cause of which is unknown. In the case of a suspected death, such as in this case, a coroner has jurisdiction to conduct an inquest even though the body of the deceased cannot be found (s.13(3)(b)), provided that the person, whose death is suspected,

was ordinarily resident in the Australian Capital Territory (S.13(2)(a)). Megan was so resident.

In order to have jurisdiction to conduct an inquest in the absence of a body and evidence of actual death, a coroner must be satisfied that a person’s death is suspected. The meaning of the word “suspected” or “suspicion” is helpfully defined in Queensland Bacon Pty Ltd v Rees (1965) 115 CLR 266 by Kitto J, at p 303, as follows:

“…A suspicion that something exists is more than a mere idle wondering whether it exists or not; it is a positive feeling of wondering whether it exists or not; it is a positive feeling of actual apprehension or mistrust, amounting to a “slight opinion without sufficient evidence.”

heard from her at some stage in the years since her disappearance if she were alive, as she was said to be a reliable person who was loved by friends and had a stable family life; and that there is no record of her being seen or heard from after that date, I suspect that Megan is deceased.

To have jurisdiction, a coroner must also be satisfied that the suspected death was “sudden”. I take the meaning of “sudden”, in the absence of a statutory definition, to be an unexpected. In this regard, I note that in some other jurisdictions the terminology used is “sudden and unexpected”.

On the evidence, I am of the opinion that, if Megan is deceased, her death can only be found to have been sudden. She did not suffer from any medical or health ailments, or any other condition, which may have caused her death and there is no evidence to suggest other than that her death was unexpected.

On 28 July, 1984 Megan was reported missing to the Woden Police Station in the Australian Capital Territory.

At the time, Megan lived with her mother at 46 Hurley Street, Mawson in the Australian Capital Territory. She was a student at Narrabundah College and held a part-time job as a Security Officer at the Big W store located in the Woden Plaza, in Phillip.

On Saturday 28 July, 1984, Megan commenced work at her part-time job at Big W at 8.30am. At the conclusion of her shift, Megan was observed leaving her workplace at about 12.05pm and was last seen, at about 12.15pm, standing outside the western entrance of the Woden Plaza, adjacent to Big W and the western car park. There is no report of her having been seen by any person to whom she was known since that moment.

Members of the Australian Federal Police (“AFP”) carried out extensive enquiries at the time with school friends, family, associates, taxi companies, public transport authorities and hotels and motels in the Canberra and Queanbeyan regions. These failed to reveal any information regarding Megan’s movements after about 12.15pm on that day.

Many and extensive police searches have been conducted in an endeavour to find Megan. Several searches throughout 1984, including in the areas surrounding the Woden Cemetery, Hindmarsh Drive, Athlon Drive, Johnson Drive, Isabella Drive and the Brindabella Ranges failed to find Megan or her remains.

In 1985 members of the AFP diving squad searched the areas of Lake Burley Griffin and Lake Ginninderra. These efforts failed to locate Megan’s remains.

Following the extensive searches and investigations carried out by the AFP, it became clear to the investigating officers that Megan had probably been abducted and killed. Their investigations have not led to the obtaining of sufficient evidence to charge any person in relation to Megan’s disappearance. However, they have identified two persons of interest in that regard.

I propose to summarise the evidence which points to these persons of interest. I do this not for the purpose of maligning or vilifying them, nor to suggest that they are guilty of any offence concerning Megan, but in the hope that some part of the information concerning them may cause members of the public to come forward with information concerning them, or incidents in which they have been involved, not known to the police, which may assist the police in their investigation of Megan’s disappearance.

The two persons of interest identified by the police investigations are Phillip T (herein referred to as “Mr T”) and Paul Vincent Phillips (herein referred to as “Mr Phillips”).

Mr T was not a person of interest in the initial investigations conducted by police in 1984. However, in light of new information provided to police in 2004, Mr T again became a person of interest for the purposes of the inquiry.

Mr T was born in 1966 and was a full-time Year 12 student at Narrabundah College at the time of Megan’s disappearance. Twelve months prior to Megan’s disappearance, Mr T had developed strong feelings for Megan and actively pursued a relationship with her. She had declined on all but one occasion.

In a statement made on 30 July, 1984, Mr T stated that he had intended to take Megan for lunch following the completion of her shift at Big W on 28 July, 1984. When he could not find her he left the Woden Plaza for his home.

He was spoken to by police investigators on numerous occasions and provided a fairly consistent account of his activities on 28 July, 1984. Additionally, his story was corroborated by a number of individuals with whom he had associated on that day.

In 2004, Victoria Police contacted the AFP regarding information they had received from the Irish Police. The Irish Police had received a complaint from a female, Ms Niamh Large, an Irish National, who had come to Victoria to study with the ‘King Pandji Sakt Sangha Vajrayana Buddhist Society International’ based in Melbourne, and was tutored by Prince Ratu.

Ms Large had stated that during her study with the Buddhist Society, Prince Ratu had spoken about a male person who had ‘huge karma to pay’ and who was prepared to sacrifice his life because he had murdered someone when he was younger. Prince Ratu said that the man bought a baseball bat, hit the victim with it, knocked her out and had sexual intercourse with the corpse. He then concealed the corpse under a bed and later disposed of it in a dumpster. The person to whom he was referring was later identified as Mr T.

On 10 August, 2004, Victoria Police spoke to Mr T about the allegations. He denied that he had murdered anyone, including Megan. In 2005, he further stated that the allegations made may have been a reference to the guilt he had felt as a result of Megan’s disappearance as he had failed to meet her on the day of her disappearance. He stated he had spoken to Prince Ratu about Megan’s disappearance in counselling and teaching sessions.

Prince Ratu could not be questioned regarding these statements at the hearing as he is now deceased.

In their evidence, the investigating officers stated they believed that Mr T had no involvement in the disappearance of Megan.

Given the evidence before me, and having regard to Mr T’s movements on the date of Megan’s disappearance, I am not satisfied that there is any basis for me to make a reference to the DPP pursuant to s.58 of the Act or to make any finding, or draw any inference, as to Mr T’s involvement in Megan’s disappearance. Nevertheless, Mr T remains a person of interest in that regard.

Mr Phillips, born 29 November, 1960, was also identified as a person of interest at the hearing.

Before and after the time of Megan’s disappearance, Mr Phillips was suspected of being involved, or shown to be involved, in a series of attacks on females of similar description to Megan, which closely coincided with his movements in the ACT, Queanbeyan and Hobart regions. The following is a summary of the relevant facts:

On 4 August, 1983, Ms A, a 26 year old nurse residing in Chifley, was found by Police on Tuggeranong Parkway, in the area of the pine plantation adjacent to the Scrivener Dam. She had been abducted from her home in Chifley and sexually assaulted. She was then driven to the pine plantation and abandoned in her vehicle.

She was later shown a photograph of Mr Phillips by police taken in 1984 and she indicated that he was the person who had abducted and sexually assaulted her.

During the month of Megan’s disappearance, Mr Phillips’s then partner, Ms W, was on holiday with her mother.

She stated that, prior to leaving for her holiday, Mr Phillips had offered to mind her vehicle while she was away. She had declined his offer. She stated that upon her return she was unable to say whether or not the vehicle had been moved. However, the inference is open to be drawn from her evidence that Mr Phillips could have used the vehicle in her absence. This would have provided him with the means of abducting Megan, who did not have her own vehicle available, unlike Ms A, referred to above, and Ms C, Ms D and Ms E referred to below.

Prior to Megan’s disappearance, Mr Phillips was residing in a flat in Queanbeyan and working at ACT Wreckers in Queanbeyan. He was dismissed from his place of employment on Friday, 27 July, 1984.

Ms W stated that, on her return from her Queensland holiday, Mr Phillips had told her that during the weekend following his dismissal from ACT Wreckers he was “very upset”, “really depressed and distraught and had cried through the Sunday evening”.

In Police interviews with Mr Phillips, conducted in September 1984, in relation to his movements on 28 July, 1984, he stated that he did not recall his movements on that date. He stated that he had most likely been with Thomas Nash at the time. When interviewed by police, Thomas Nash could not recall any events during this period

Sometime after the report of Megan’s disappearance, Mr Phillips moved out of the unit in Uriarra Road, Queanbeyan to the Riverside Caravan Park, Queanbeyan.

On Monday 27 August, 1984, Ms B, aged 20 years old, reported to the Police that she had been sexually assaulted whilst in her flat in Queanbeyan. She had stated that she was dragged out of the bath and forced into her bedroom where she was sexually assaulted by a male person. She was also robbed of an amount of $37.00 in cash.

No person has ever been identified or charged in relation to this assault, although Mr Phillips was one of the Police suspects.

During the time of this assault Mr Phillips was residing at the Riverside Caravan Park in Queanbeyan. On 26 August, 1984, Mr Phillips was approached by the manager of the caravan park and requested to pay his rent. Mr Phillips could only afford to pay $4.00 at this time. On 28 August, 2009, Mr Phillips is recorded as having paid $28.00 in cash to the caravan park towards his rent.

On 6 September, 1984, Mr Phillips was evicted from Riverside Caravan Park and he then moved to the Southside Caravan Park, Fyshwick, ACT.

On Friday, 14 September, 1984 Ms C, who was 33 years of age, was assaulted in a car park at Townsville Street, Fyshwick. A male person of similar description to Mr Phillips had attempted to force the victim into her vehicle and slapped her when she began to scream. He then proceeded to walk away from the area.

Ms C completed a photo fit of the offender that bore a close resemblance to Mr Phillips. However, she had failed to identify Mr Phillips from a photo board prepared for this purpose.

During an interview conducted by Police in 2005, Mr Phillips made admissions in relation to having committed this offence stating his motive was robbery.

On Friday, 21 September, 1984, Ms D, who was 17 years of age, was abducted by Mr Phillips after he had forcibly entered her vehicle in the western car park at the Woden Plaza. This was the same car park near which Megan was last seen.

Ms D was driven to a location within the Uriarra Pine Forest where she was sexually assaulted. During the assault Mr Phillips had used a knife to threaten her. Mr Phillips threatened to leave Ms D at Uriarra Pine Forest but changed his mind and drove her back to Lyons.

The following day he was arrested at the Cotter Camping Reserve in possession of Ms D’s vehicle and made full admissions in relation to the offence.

In March, 1985 Mr Phillips pleaded guilty to abduction, assault, rape and robbery of Ms D. He was subsequently sentenced to seven years imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years.

On 18 November, 1988, Mr Phillips was arrested in New Norfolk, near Hobart in Tasmania, in relation to the attempted abduction and assault of a female, Ms E, aged 24 years, at a shopping centre.

After she had placed her shopping bags into her vehicle and attempting to start it, Mr Phillips opened the driver’s door and forced her to move over to the passenger side of the vehicle. While Mr Phillips was reversing, Miss E escaped from the vehicle.

Mr Phillips pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the Hobart Supreme Court to serve a period of detention for approximately three years.

On 15 April, 1998 Mr Phillips picked up Ms F, aged18 years, whilst she was hitchhiking in South Hobart. He threatened her with a knife and then drove her to the property on which he lived with his then de facto partner. He then sexually assaulted her several times throughout the day.

Mr Phillips was convicted and imprisoned in Hobart. He was subsequently granted parole in January 2008.

At the hearing, Mr Phillips was cross-examined in relation to his pattern of offending behaviour and in particular the recurrence of motor vehicles, car parks and knives in the attacks. He was also questioned in relation to his involvement in Megan’s disappearance. He denied any involvement in the disappearance

An expert report and a forensic report have been obtained in relation to Mr Phillips’s possible, or actual, involvement in Megan’s disappearance and a further police search has been conducted.

Dr Michael Diamond is a specialist psychiatrist, with expertise in the provision of psychiatric consultation to inmates within the corrective services setting, and, in particular, sex offenders. He was asked to provide his professional opinion and advice regarding the likelihood that Mr Phillips was involved in Megan’s disappearance.

“… there is a robust body of material that supports the view that the signature offending pattern of PVP together with the timing of the disappearance of Megan Mulquiney from that location provides circumstantial evidence to say there is a strong likelihood that PVP is involved in her disappearance.”

In addition to the documentary evidence provided to him, Dr Diamond observed Mr Phillips’ while he was being cross-examined. Dr Diamond testified that his observations of Mr Phillips had helped to emphasise the opinions expressed in his written report.

On 6 March, 2007, several exhibits were lodged for forensic examination, including property belonging to Megan Mulquiney and property seized from Mr Phillips in 1984. The examination did not reveal the presence of DNA with a profile similar to Megan’s Mulquiney was not located on any of the seized items.

In 2007, a police search for Megan’s remains was conducted in an area adjacent to the Woods Reserve, Tharwa, following anonymous information provided to Police that Megan’s remains and her belongings had been left at that location by Mr Phillips. However, no remains or belongings were located.

In my opinion, Mr Phillips remains a person of interest in relation to Megan’s disappearance, in view of the following:

· The similarity in the nature of attacks linked to Mr Phillips and carried out between 4 August 1983 and 21 September 1984 in the ACT and Queanbeyan region.

· The similarity in the appearance of Mr Phillips’s victims, and suspected victims - physically petite, possessing child like facial features and dark colouring. All being features shred with Megan.

· The fact that the attacks relating to Ms D (1984), Ms E (1988) and Ms F (1998) seemed to have occurred during periods of downturn in Mr Phillips’s life. In this regard, I note that, a day prior to Megan’s disappearance, Mr Phillips was dismissed from his place of employment.

· The fact that three of the attacks occurred in a car park. In this regard, I not that the last time Megan was sighted she was standing outside the western entrance of the Plaza, adjacent to Big W and the western car park.

Whilst Mr Phillips is a person of interest in the matter, having regard to the evidence given at the hearing, and in the absence of admissible and sufficiently probative evidence, it is not open to me to refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, pursuant to s.58 of the Act, as I do not have reasonable grounds for believing that a known person has committed an indictable offence in relation to Megan’s disappearance.

Throughout the inquest information was brought to the Chief Coroner’s attention regarding alternative theories as to Megan’s disappearance.

Statements made suggested that it was well known among members of the community that Megan had left Canberra with her boyfriend and did not wish to be found. It was said that this matter was just another ‘run away’ case.

In my opinion, all suggestions that Megan wished to leave her family, and, in effect, disappear, are entirely speculative. They are not supported by any evidence. In fact, the evidence presented at the hearing demonstrates exactly the opposite. Megan was a very stable and reliable girl, who would not leave her home without notifying her mother and who, at the time of her disappearance, intended to attend a pre-planned dinner with her father later in the evening. According to her friends and family, she did not drink or have boyfriends and her social life consisted mainly of ice skating with her younger sister.

The extensive police investigations that have been carried out since Megan’s disappearance and the inquest hearing have failed to reveal the circumstances of her disappearance, or the identity of anyone involved in her abduction. Clearly, any hope of solving the mystery of her disappearance now rests largely upon members of the public coming forward with further information. It is hoped that further publicity being given to the case and the details concerning persons of interest may jog someone’s memory about some previously unknown fact, no matter how small, which may ultimately assist in solving the case. I urge members of the public to come forward with any information that they may have, or about which they have been told or heard.

I am satisfied that Megan has not been sighted by any person to whom she was known since about 12.15pm on 28 July 1984. No physical evidence of Megan’s death has ever been located.

I am further satisfied that on Saturday, 28 July, 1984, Megan commenced work at her part-time job at Big W at the Woden Plaza at 8.30am. At the conclusion of her shift, she was observed leaving her workplace at about 12.05pm and was last seen at about 12.15pm, standing outside the western entrance of the Woden Plaza adjacent to Big W and the western car park.

Given the circumstances of her disappearance, I find that it is extremely likely that Megan met with foul play and was murdered by a person, or persons, unknown.

· Megan Louise Mulquiney, born on 3 November 1966, and who was at all relevant times ordinarily resident in the Australian Capital Territory, has died;

I offer my deepest condolences to Megan’s parents and siblings on the untimely and tragic loss of their loved daughter and sister.

ADVANCES in DNA technology could help solve some of ACT's historic murders and missing-person cases, some of which are now being reviewed by detectives.

Old exhibits, which police have kept in storage for many years, are being looked at again in the light of new forensic techniques which can pick up microscopic shreds of DNA.

The case of missing Canberra schoolgirl Megan Mulquiney is one of several cold cases being re-examined by ACT police. Megan vanished from a suburban shopping centre 22 years ago and has never been found.

The 16-year-old had clocked off from her part-time job at Big W in Woden Plaza and walked outside to catch a bus home to nearby Mawson. That was just after noon on July 28, 1984.

Her disappearance has long baffled detectives, who have had few leads to follow and never found a body.

Family and friends have said it was totally out of character for Megan to disappear without telling anyone.

For Megan's mother, Dorothy Mulquiney,the past two decades have been a roller-coaster of emotions.

On top of the grief and sense of loss, there have been unanswered questions and hope that Megan would one day come home.

In her quest for answers, Dorothy was lured in by clairvoyants and private detectives who cost her a fortune. She has been clutching at any straw that might lead her to her daughter.

''It is something that will never go away,'' she says. ''Things happen that trigger memories or you read about a missing person in the paper. You relive it every day of your life.''

The review of Megan's disappearance has been sparked by new forensic possibilities. During a visit to Canberra in May last year, British forensic expert Professor David Barclay examined the case. Barclay, a forensic scientist of 35 years, is a consultant to West Australian Police and has reviewed a number of cold cases in Australia. About the time of his visit, ACT detectives had also been looking at old exhibits in the Mulquiney case. It was suggested that those exhibits should be re-examined using low copy number DNA technology - the latest in forensic science.

Through the technology, DNA profile results can be obtained from microscopic amounts of DNA material. It was developed in Britain and used in the case of murdered British tourist Peter Falconio. DNA tests using the new technology were conducted on cable ties found around the wrists of Joanne Lees, Falconio's girlfriend. The results of those tests were presented as evidence during the trial of Bradley John Murdoch who was later convicted of Falconio's murder.

Some DNA testing on exhibits in the Mulquiney case is under way in Canberra but there are plans to send other items to Britain for specialist testing.

ACT police have interviewed a suspect possibly connected with Megan's disappearance and obtained a DNA sample from him.

The man in question is an inmate at Risdon Prison in Tasmania and has been convicted of rapes and abductions in the ACT and Tasmania.

Originally from Tasmania and now in his 40s, he was a suspect in the Mulquiney case in 1984. It is believed that he had been living in the ACT about that time.

Police obtained vacuumings and a number of items from his home and vehicle after Megan's disappearance.

Those exhibits had been kept in storage and are now being re-examined using the new DNA technology.

In the past 12 months, police have also been reviewing statements taken after the disappearance and speaking again to witnesses, Megan's friends and associates. Their investigations have taken them around Australia. And there has been discussion about holding a coronial inquest into the disappearance.

Police are preparing an updated brief of evidence and are expected to meet ACT Chief Coroner Ron Cahill this month.

ACT Deputy Chief Police Officer (Response) Commander Leanne Close said new forensic possibilities were exciting, but they could not on their own solve cases.

There is the possibility no DNA will be found on the items or that, given the time since it was taken, it may have deteriorated.

''It is an opportunity but there is no guarantee that this will assist in closing the case or bringing anyone to court in relation to it,'' Close said.

''But we are going to investigate every possible line of inquiry.

She revealed some reasons police had pinpointed a particular suspect in the Mulquiney case.

''It's more events after what happened after Megan's disappearance - the fact that [the suspect] has been charged with other rapes and abductions,'' she said. ''Through looking at his profile, looking at circumstances of those other offences, that is why we are looking at him as a person of

interest.

''But we are also not just focusing on this person. We have to make sure we discount any other suspects. There have been other persons of interest in the past.''

The DNA testing being undertaken was complex, expensive and lengthy, and it formed only part of a broad investigation.

''We can't really put a time frame on it because as well as forensics issues there a whole range of investigative lines of inquiry we really want to follow,'' she said.

Advances in DNA technology were exciting, given their potential to help police in their quest to solve cold cases.

''The possibility for historic homicides with the new forensic technology, particularly DNA, really does give us some new avenues of inquiry,'' she said. ''But we still have to temper that ... we can't just rely on forensics.

''There are all the other investigations we have to compile and bring before a court to prove beyond reasonable doubt that someone has committed an offence.''

Dorothy Mulquiney is desperately hoping a DNA development will provide her with some form of closure. But she understands that that may never be a reality. ''I would love for there to be closure but it will have to have some very solid foundations,'' she said. ''At the moment all we can do is just

wait and see - we are trying not to get our hopes up.''

During Missing Persons week in 2004, she approached Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty asking for an inquest into her daughter's disappearance.

So recent discussions about the possibility of holding such an inquest have provided her with some hope.

''At least we will know what exactly police have done ... the whos and the whats,'' she said.

''An inquest really should have already been and gone.''

Police were not prepared to disclose details of other cold cases in the ACT now under review. But they did say several such reviews were under way, largely as a result of new forensic possibilities.

''What we've done is gone through our exhibits and identified cases where we believe there might be some strong possibility to get some DNA,'' Close said.

Murder inquiries were a particular focus at the moment. But police hoped to take a fresh look at more historic missing-person cases in the future.

''Looking at the list of missing people, a lot of cases haven't gone to inquest,'' she said. ''I'm not saying we can do it straight away but we need to start assessing some of these.''

ACT Chief Coroner Ron Cahill said it was important that cold cases in the territory were reviewed and coronial inquests considered.

''I think it is important we do it but it is a question of looking at each individual case and assessing it to see if anything can be gained from an inquest,'' he said. ''If there appears a crime is involved we should try and get closure on those cases.''

A serial rapist recently released from a Tasmanian prison could hold clues into the 1984 disappearance of Canberra teenager Megan Mulquiney.

Paul Vincent Phillips, 49, will likely be brought to Canberra to give evidence at a coronial hearing into 17-year-old Megan's disappearance and presumed death when it resumes in January.

Megan, a Year 12 student at Narrabundah College, was last seen about noon on July 28, 1984, shortly after completing her shift at Big W at Woden Plaza.

Her mother, Dorothy Mulquiney, told The Canberra Times yesterday that the hardest thing for her family was that they may never know what happened to Megan that day.

''She was just a loving, kind, good person,'' she said.''There was no conflict at home, there was absolutely nothing that I could put my finger on. There's no way she would run away.''

She said Megan had always been so reliable and punctual that she knew something was wrong within two hours of Megan not returning home from work.

The inquest, which began in February last year after police reopened the case in 2006, resumed yesterday, with updated evidence relating to the police investigation.

Counsel assisting the coroner Marg Hunter took the step of recommending to Chief Coroner Ron Cahill that Phillips be subpoenaed to give evidence in January

A violent rapist, Phillips had been living in Canberra at the time of Megan's disappearance.

In March 1985, he was jailed for four years for abducting and raping a young Canberra woman, two months after Megan disappeared.

Phillips spent seven years in Tasmania's Risdon jail, after being sentenced for the rape of a teenage hitchhiker in 1998. He also served jail time for assaulting a woman in New Norfolk in 1988, four months after being paroled in the ACT.

Police took samples vacuumed from his car and unit after Megan vanished, although subsequent DNA testing revealed no link to Megan.

According to police, inquiries have also implicated Phillips in three other cases an abduction and rape in Canberra in 1983, a rape in Queanbeyan a month after Megan's disappearance, and an attempted abduction in Fyshwick weeks after that.

Although not charged, police say that Phillips has admitted his involvement in one attack and has been identified by the victim in a second. Phillips served out his sentence and was released without parole in January this year. He has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the maximum 15 years.

The court heard an updated report yesterday from a now retired detective, Peter Baldwin, noting the striking similarities between many of the victims and the behaviour of the attacker. Several of the victims were teenagers with a petite build and dark colouring, a description matching that of Megan.

The inquest is set to resume in January.

The Canberra Times

July 31, 2010

SOMEWHERE stashed away in evidence storage are Megan Mulquiney's nightie, bed linen and hairbrush.

They've been there for 26 years now; it's been that long since their owner had need of them.

Megan Mulquiney has not been seen since July 28, 1984.

The then-17 year old finished her shift at the Big W in Woden Plaza shortly after noon, but never made it home.

She is one of the seven ACT people listed by the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre. Six women, one man.

The disappearance of Kate Alexander stretches back more than three decades. For the family of Laura Haworth the pain is much fresher, much rawer.

Statistically, all seven are anomalies.In 95 per cent of the 35,000 missing persons cases reported each year one every 15 minutes the individual is found within a short period of time.

But there are 1600 of these nightmarish rarities, the "long- term missing" cases.

This week is doubly significant for Megan's mother Dorothy.

Today is the start of National Missing Persons Week, and last Wednesday Mrs Mulquiney marked 26 years to the day since her little girl vanished.

Megan's disappearance has been the subject of a cold case investigation. A coronial inquest ended in January 2009, returning an open finding. The last person of interest in the case, convicted rapist Paul Vincent Phillips, was hauled before the inquest last year.

The inquest found Megan was probably murdered by persons unknown, and Phillips remained a person of interest. But that's as far as it went. And for Mrs Mulquiney, closure is nowhere in sight.

"There's a big hole there for me. In one way, I suppose I'd like not to think [Phillips] did what they say he did to Megan."

Mrs Mulquiney wants to know what happened in her lifetime.

"Really, now that the coronial inquest has happened, Megan's case is hidden in a box somewhere.

It's a sleeper."

The disappearance of mother- of-two Laura Haworth is the territory's most recent long- term missing person case.

Beth Cassiles last saw her daughter Laura at a Christmas lunch in 2007. Ms Haworth was in good spirits. She was in the midst of moving house, and expressed relief when her mother offered to pay to keep larger items in storage temporarily.

"Looking back, I think she might have known she was going away and was relieved someone would be taking care of her things," Ms Cassiles said.

"She was quite attached to her things."

On the day she went missing Ms Haworth and a friend were headed to the Cotter Dam for a swim. It is believed they returned to her friend's home in Queanbeyan.

During the day Ms Haworth received a call from someone, who she went out to meet later that evening. She has not been seen since.

Her car was found dumped at Kanangra Court in Reid two weeks later, with paperwork and clothes neatly arranged inside.

Her two children are now six and nine years old. Every time they visit their grandmother in Curtin, they have new theories about where their mother might be. Sometimes she's on a skiing holiday. Sometimes she's dead.

"I'm really hopeful that she's alive, and [has] made a new life for herself somewhere," Ms Cassiles said.

National Missing Persons Week has, in years past, been a time for Ms Haworth's family to get a measure of "recognition and acknowledgement" for their suffering.

But Ms Cassiles is upset about a decision not to hold the traditional service for the families at the All Saints Church in Ainslie. Police this year decided not to ask the church to host the event, and Ms Haworth's mother is hoping to negotiate some other way to mark the occasion in Canberra.

Whether two years have elapsed, or 26, or more, the families of the missing maintain hope.

For Mrs Mulquiney, it's about closure, and the promise of that crucial piece of information that could help police close the case.

"Somebody out there must know something," she said.

And Ms Cassiles has a message for her daughter Laura.

"I'd like her to know that I'm waiting for her call. And I'll wait forever."

Do you know something?

Visit the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre at www.missingpersons.gov.au/home.

All information will be treated as confidential.

ACT community still searching for answers over Megan Mulquiney's 1984 disappearance

It's been more than three decades since Megan Mulquiney was last seen after work at Woden Plaza, but time hasn't eased the sense of loss and despair felt by her family and community.

She is one of six long-term missing ACT residents police have shone the spotlight on during National Missing Persons Week, an annual event that aims to raise awareness of missing persons nationwide.

This year's theme was "Follow your instincts" and encouraged people to understand they didn't need to wait 24 hours to report someone as missing.

About 35,000 people go missing in Australia each year, which equates to one person every 15 minutes, and about 20,000 of those are young people.

More than 99 per cent of people are found, 85 per cent within a week.

Megan Louise Mulquiney was 17 when she was last seen at the south side Canberra shopping centre at noon on Saturday, July 28, 1984.

She was never seen again.

Megan was 158cm tall, with straight, dark brown hair that was parted in the middle.

When she went missing she was wearing a black corduroy jacket and skirt, a pink and grey checked blouse, black leather flat-heeled shoes and purple stockings.

ACT Policing criminal investigations Detective Sergeant Donna Parsons said her disappearance was still being investigated by cold case detectives in the homicide team.

She said the Mulquiney family's loss had reverberated in the tight-knit Canberra community and had devastated her family.

"Obviously for her family, and particularly for her mum Dorothy, it's been a really difficult time for them.

"They just want closure, and I think the community understands that."

Police posted a fresh plea for the public's help to find out more about Megan's disappearance on their Facebook page this week.

It attracted dozens of comments, many from community members who knew Megan or her family, or who recalled they were at Woden Plaza the day she vanished.

"A lot of people who were born and bred Canberrans remember that day and I think the community has a lot of compassion for Megan's family.

"Canberra's a small community and people know people and when something big happens it sticks in people's minds."

Detective Sergeant Parsons urged anyone with information to come forward and help end years of uncertainty for the Mulquiney family.

"Someone still must have seen or heard something. It might not have seemed significant or it might be something small that's been niggling at the back of their mind, or something from a conversation with someone.

"We say it all the time, but every little bit helps and could be the piece of information we need to find out what happened."

■ Visit the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre at missingpersons.gov.au/home. All information will be treated as confidential. People can also contact ACT Policing, 131 444 or Crime Stoppers, 1800 333 000.

'I need proof': Mother of Megan Mulquiney still desperate for answers

Dorothy Mulquiney’s agonising search for answers could be a little closer to ending, as police probe new leads into the disappearance of her teenage daughter Megan in 1984.

“The police got in touch with me about two weeks ago and said they needed to see me about something. To me that was a godsend,” she said.

“I just pray that we can find out what happened to Megan.”

On Thursday morning ACT Policing revealed they were investigating new avenues related to Megan’s disappearance from Woden Plaza on July 28, 1984. She was 17 at the time.

Convicted rapist Paul Vincent Phillips was never charged in relation to Megan’s disappearance, but was identified as the prime suspect during a 2009 inquest that found it extremely likely the teenager was murdered.

Phillips died in April, with police saying a number of people had been in touch with new information since.Saturday marks 34 years to the day since Megan was last seen but mum Dorothy said the pain of not knowing what happened to her daughter had never left her.

“It has been 34 years and it never goes away,” she said.

“I need answers and I need to know the facts. I need proof.”

Memories of Megan’s disappearance would come flooding back every time Dorothy heard someone else had gone missing.

“When I hear of another person going missing it brings all of those feelings back,” she said.

“It never leaves you. You know what those other parents are going through.

“It will be 34 years on the 28th. That’s a long time.”

The major breakthrough revealed by police on Thursday was that they now believed Phillips had an accomplice.

"We’ve been presented with the unique opportunity, since Paul Vincent Phillips’ passing, to revisit friends, family and associates of his, in the search for answers," Detective Senior Constable Patrick O'Brien said.

"... We now believe that Paul Vincent Phillips did not act alone in his offending."

Senior Constable O'Brien said he believed there were still people out there who knew what had happened, and he implored them to contact police and help bring closure to Ms Mulquiney's family.

"It may be that those people carry a significant burden, whether they know the whereabouts of Megan or the circumstances [surrounding her disappearance]," Senior Constable O'Brien said.

"We implore them to come forward and speak with us, to assist us in gaining closure for the family."

Detective Senior Constable Emma-Lea Beere said Phillips spent the majority of his adult life in prison after being convicted of violent sexual offences against young women.

She said while police had lacked evidence to charge Phillips in relation to Megan's disappearance, she matched the description of his known victims.

"His victims would often appear young, have child-like features, they were petite in build, approximately 5 foot 4 inches tall, and would wear their shoulder-length hair out," Senior Constable Beere said.

"This description matches that of Megan."

Senior Constable Beere said Phillips was nomadic, and had lived in 17 different places during his time in the ACT.

He was also known to prey on young women as they entered open car parks, with one such incident taking place about two months after Megan was last seen.

"The investigation into Megan’s disappearance did not die with Paul Vincent Phillips, and we continue with our search for answers," Senior Constable Beere said.

Police have set up a dedicated hotline for information on the case, and will also be at Woden Plaza about 12pm on Saturday - the 34th anniversary of Megan's disappearance - to talk to anyone with information.

Anyone with information is urged to call 0457 844 917 to speak to the officers investigating the case.

Information can also be provided anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or via the Crime Stoppers ACT website.

Canberra cold case breakthrough after prime suspect in teenager's disappearance dies

There has been a breakthrough in one of Canberra's longest-running missing persons cases following the death of the prime suspect.

Police said a number of people had given them fresh information about the disappearance of Megan Mulquiney, since serial sex offender Paul Vincent Phillips died in April.

Ms Mulquiney, then 17, was last seen outside the Woden Plaza on Saturday July 28, 1984.

She had completed her shift at Big W and was due to catch a bus home, but never arrived.

Almost 34 years later to the day, ACT police have announced they do not believe Phillips acted alone.

A 2009 inquest into Ms Mulquiney's disappearance determined it was extremely likely she was murdered by a person or persons.

Since Phillips' death in April, Senior Constable Patrick O'Brien said a number of people had come forward to assist police with fresh information.

"We believe there are people in the community who do know the circumstances of Megan's disappearance, or may be able to assist us in our investigation," he said.

"It may be that those people carry a significant burden, whether they know the whereabouts of Megan or the circumstances — we implore them to come forward and speak with us."

Megan fit profile of Phillips' victims

Phillips spent the majority of his adult life behind bars for a series of violent sexual offences against young women.

Detective Senior Constable Emma Beere said he lived a nomadic lifestyle and, while in Canberra, stayed in 17 different locations, including caravan parks and camping grounds.

"One such incident occurred only two months after Megan was last seen leaving her workplace in Woden Plaza.

"His victims would often appear young, have child-like features, they were petite in build … and would wear their shoulder-length hair out.

During the 2009 inquest, Ms Mulquiney's mother Dorothy said she believed Phillips had some involvement in her daughter's disappearance.

"But I'd like something to be found out so I can put it to rest, because without knowing it's a nightmare," she said.

Anyone with information has been urged to contact ACT Policing on the dedicated mobile number 0457 844 917 or speak to them in person at Woden shopping centre this Saturday at midday.

She was last seen soon after midday, but never made it to the bus.

There has been no trace of her since then, just a heartbroken family and a well-worn image of a smiling teenager with a 1980s flick in her hair.

It’s that hair that serves as a reminder - obvious but important - that Megan went missing in a time before CCTV, mobile phones, or a solid understanding of DNA.

But when the same family was told that one of the few persons of interest in the case - a serial rapist who was living in Canberra at the time of Megan’s disappearance - would be brought before the court almost 25 years later, it was like an episode of a modern police drama brought to life.

When Phillips, who had been in jail for most of his adult life, entered the courtroom, you could feel the air shift. He was tall, and forbidding, and, worst of all, defensive.

By this time, he was just a year out of prison after a nine-year stint in Tasmania’s Risdon jail, for the abduction and rape of a teenage hitchhiker.

He had earlier been convicted of the abduction and rape of a Canberra teenager in September 1984, also at Woden Plaza, just two months after Megan disappeared, and the attempted abduction of a woman in Tasmania four months after he was released from prison for this offence.

During the hearing, which lasted two days, he was cross-examined about his childhood in Tasmania and Canberra - one marred by abuse and neglect - as well as details about the offences for which he served a combined 16 years in prison.

He agreed and offered further details as counsel assisting the coroner, Margaret Hunter, gave chilling accounts of each of the attacks.

A key part of the evidence at the inquest was that each time Phillips had attacked a woman, he had been at a low ebb in his life.

On the day before Megan vanished, a Friday, Phillips was sacked from his job at an autowreckers in Queanbeyan.

Twenty-four years later, he was still unable to explain why he had given police three false alibis to account for his whereabouts on the day Megan went missing.

But during the 2009 inquest, when Ms Hunter asked him what it would take for him to admit what he had done to Megan's family, he said, ''It would take for me to have done it. I swear that on my children. I have children of my own.”

He agreed with the coroner that while there was no physical evidence, there was a range of circumstantial evidence that pointed to him as a prime candidate.

''I'd be thinking that too, your honour,'' he said.

And with that, he was gone - a free man who had done his time and given no closure to a family desperate for answers.

Chief coroner Ron Cahill was left once again to deliver an open finding into Megan's disappearance and presumed death, saying it was likely Megan was murdered by an unknown person.

But he said Phillips would remain a person of interest - words that have taken on a new meaning now that Phillips is dead.

There's been just one main suspect - a serial rapist who abducted and assaulted several young women, including a 17-year-old in the Woden Plaza car park just months after Megan disappeared. He spent most of his adult life in prison, and died two years ago having maintained he had nothing to do with what happened to Megan.

Dorothy believed him. She felt, deep down, that Megan wasn't taken by a stranger.

In the years since Megan disappeared, she has split from her - now late - partner, and watched her other two children grow up and have their own families. Life has gone on. Megan's face has appeared, briefly, in news reports, magazine stories and on milk cartons over the years, always with the accompanying hope that someone's memory might be jogged.

But the further away she gets from the day it happened, the less likely it seems that she will ever have answers.

One of the saddest and strangest things about the case is that the facts haven't changed one bit since the day Megan disappeared. The story's contours have stayed the same, even as the years have gone by. Hope has faded and sadness has become deeply ingrained.

The stark facts: on July 28, 1984, Megan finished her Saturday shift at Big W in the Woden Plaza - back when all shops closed at midday on Saturday. She left the store after the doors closed and walked towards the mall's exit. She had told colleagues she was going to catch the bus home to rest, as she and her younger sister and brother would be going out for dinner with their father that night. Several people remembered seeing her walking to the exit leading to the car park and the bus interchange, and then, as the facts would have it, she disappeared. She never got on the bus and no one saw where she went.

At her suburban home 10 minutes away, Dorothy was worried as soon as Megan didn't walk back from the bus stop. She couldn't imagine what would have held her up. Megan was a good girl, a reliable girl. She didn't have secrets, she didn't have a boyfriend. Dorothy called the police within hours, and that evening found herself giving a statement at the station. She described what Megan had been wearing, what her plans had been, who her friends were. She knew - then and now - that there was simply no way Megan had run away.

She thought then - and still does - that Megan must have climbed into the car of someone she knew. Someone who may not even have meant her any harm.

"It could have even been accidental," she says.

"In my mind, as a mum, and with the type of person and daughter she was, I can't think why somebody would want to murder her. I can't! Maybe, maybe something happened and it got out of hand, I don't know."

It's something Anne Johnson also grapples with. She and Megan were best friends back in 1984. They were both Year 11 students at Narrabundah College, had part-time mall jobs, loved going to the ice-skating rink on Friday nights.

And if anyone was going to go missing and branded a runaway, it was her, not Megan.

"I was the wild one. If I'd have gone missing, people would have thought I'd run away for three days," she says.

"For Megan, she was uncomplicated. There was no double life. She had ambitions to be a teacher, she wanted to help people.

"Back in those days people used to smoke dope occasionally, and Megan was never that type of person. She'd come and mother everyone. There were no secrets."

Much like Dorothy, she has never really stopped thinking about Megan over the years, even after moving away and starting her own family.

And she says no matter how hard she thinks about it, she knows deep down that Megan must have left the mall with someone she knew.

"There's not one cell in my body that says that she ran away," she says.

Prima Pandji is another person who still wonders.

He was an infatuated teenager who, on that Saturday morning in 1984, managed to get Megan to agree to meet him after her Big W shift. Known

back then as Phillip Tu - he changed his name in the early 2000s - he was a student in the year above her at Narrabundah College, and had spotted her across the quadrangle, thought she was "cute and pretty", and worked up the courage to ask her to pose for a portrait he had to do for his photography class.

She agreed; the portrait is the one that everyone knows, the one the police put on posters, the one that's still framed in Dorothy's living room.

"I had a crush on her from then," he says, over the phone from Melbourne.

In the years since Megan disappeared, he has become a Buddhist, and lectures in industrial design at Swinburne University. But the memories of Megan are never far from the surface.

"Megan was pretty quiet, she had to put up with some of my silly sense of humour," he says.

"Whether anything would have come out of it, I don't know in terms of a relationship or anything like that. It was just one of those crushes."

One of those otherwise meaningless crushes that, 36 years on, still has more meaning than it ever should have.

Tu had arranged to meet Megan for lunch after her shift that day. He turned up outside Big W a few minutes late, and she was gone.

As he later told police, he left the mall, thinking he'd been stood up, went home, hung out with friends, and later went to his parents' restaurant in Braddon. It was there, that evening, that Dorothy rang him in a panic, saying Megan hadn't come home. He drove over to the Mulquiney's home and stayed there until the early hours of the morning.

For a time afterwards, he was a person of interest. The police interviewed him several times, and he remembers how anxious he was to help, to find answers, to be as open as possible.

"How I felt exactly I don't know, but I just remember they were long interviews, it was only afterwards that I realised how it affected me," he says.

"And do you know what, ever since then, I suppose, because I was that person of interest, because I was going to meet Megan that day, because I had a high school crush, I figured I'll probably always be that guy, it's always going to be there.

"You feel like, if I didn't organise to meet her, or if I was actually able to meet her, what would have happened?"

He has no theories: in his mind, something happened and she is gone. He can't see anything beyond that.

He says his life would have been completely different if Megan hadn't disappeared.

"Sometimes I think to myself, why the hell am I even still here? I never got married, I don't have my own family, it's like I've never, ever gotten over the trauma," he says.

"It must have some influence or effect, right? The way I found my lama

(teacher) in the Buddhist practice was failed relationships, or falling for the wrong person, I just never had good, loving romantic relationships."

As he has learned compassion over the years, he has also become, as he puts it, "more weepy", finding the news - about fires, coronavirus, shark attacks, murders - more and more affecting.

Still, we're both taken aback when he starts crying, openly down the phone. He's weeping for all the things that have been lost, for the life Megan might have had.

"It's been so many years, and it still hurts," he says, sobbing.

Johnson, too, says her life has been shaped by Megan's disappearance. She was hyper-vigilant with her own son when he was growing up, constantly worried that someone would take him from a shopping mall.

But most of all, she says, there was a loss of innocence that has permeated life ever since.

"I felt that someone had broken the trust. Someone changed the way you think of the world - which then does change your life moving forward," she says.

"It stays with you forever."

She was on a working trip in Lismore in the late 1980s when she remembers seeing a young woman across the street.

"I thought she looked like Megan would have looked at that age, and I yelled out across the street. You run up to people and you tap them on the shoulder. I've done that numerous times in different areas where they turn around and it's not her.

"It's a hyper-sensitive thing - what would she look like now? Part of you wants to know that she didn't come to harm, that's the worst bit, that there's a part of you that just thinks, maybe."

Johnson is weeping too.

"It's horrible to not know. Poor Dorothy, it just blows me away with what she's been through - I don't know how she functions every day, but we have very blunt conversations and she doesn't have a choice.

"I know a very small part of her is still expecting that one day she's just going to come home."

Dorothy herself doesn't need to spell this out; it's obvious. It's the reason she hasn't moved away, the reason she keeps steeling herself to have these conversations.

For a long time, she says, she too would scan every crowd for Megan's face. But as the years go on, the searching has changed. All she wants now is for someone to tell her what happened, even if it means a confession.

"I don't hate, put it that way, I don't hate anybody," she says.

"All I want to know is what happened to my beautiful daughter, so that I can put her to rest."

The Megan Mulquiney investigation remains active. Anyone with information is urged to contact investigators directly on 0457 844 917 or anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or on their website.

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Megan's mystery: holding out for hope

ACT community still searching for answers over Megan Mulquiney's 1984 disappearance

'I need proof': Mother of Megan Mulquiney still desperate for answers

Megan fit profile of Phillips' victims

Suspect in 1984 disappearance of Megan Mulquiney a chilling figure

Name scribbled in magazine raises questions in missing person case