- Prudence Bird missing since 1992
- Authorities to consider waiving charges
- Investigations so far fruitless
Homicide Squad detectives today announced the reward for information leading to a conviction had jumped from $100,000 to $500,000.
Schoolgirl Prudence Bird, known as `Prue', disappeared from her home in Justin Avenue, Glenroy about 2.10pm on February 2, 1992.
Her mother Jenny said the past 16 years had been "the cruellest".
"It's like carrying a bag of bricks around with you every day of your life," she said.
Ms Bird last spoke to Prue the night before her disappearance, when her daughter apologised for coming home late, and told her she loved her.
After looking in on her sleeping daughter the next morning, Ms Bird left for the day.
A female friend, living at the house, and reported to be in a relationship with Ms Bird, last saw Prue in the kitchen preparing lunch, and taking a call from a teenage boy.
When the woman returned to the house after packing boxes in the garage, the front door was open, the television was on and a hot meal was sitting uneaten on the table.
Despite extensive police investigations, Prue has not been seen or heard from since.
"To me it's like she's been taken by aliens, she's just gone," her mother said.
Police have investigated numerous avenues of enquiry in the hunt for Prue over the past 16 years - including her grandmother's de facto husband Paul Kurt Hetzel.
In 1999, The Age reported Hetzel, a career criminal, had lived under witness protection for years after testifying against three associates convicted over the Russell Street bombing and armed robberies.
In 1991, Prue, apparently resentful of her mother's new relationship with the woman who lived at their house, wanted to leave home, and went to stay with her "Nanna" and Hetzel in a town near Kalgoorlie.
She later returned, reporting telling her mother: "I don't want to go back - he's nuts."
Prue also knew a man called Stanley Taylor, an old jailmate of Hetzel's. The Age reported in 1999 that it was only after Prue took an overdose of tablets the year before she disappeared, that her grandmother revealed that at age seven, Prue was handcuffed to a naked boy her own age in a shower.
Ms Bird said she was under no illusions her feisty daughter, who was in Year 8 at Glenroy High when she disappeared, was still alive.
"I don't live in a fairyland, I knew the day Prue went missing that whatever it was (it) was going to be terrible," she said.
Detective Inspector Steve Clark today said police did not have "any information to suggest the disappearance is linked to the Russell Street bombings", and no specific information there was any link to the grandparents.
Ms Bird said she had no theories.
"I have no clue, I wish I knew," she said.
Ms Bird said she had cut all ties with her extended family.
She said she missed Prue, who would have now been 30, every day of her life.
"I think, would she be married, would she have children? I miss everything about her, I miss her smell, her touch, I miss everything.
"She was naughty at times, she had a lot of guts to do things, she used to pinch me on the bum to say that she loves me."
Detective Inspector Clark said there were still many unanswered questions.
"She (Prue) had no criminal history, nor did she have any known personal reasons to run away from home. She left a hot meal uneaten on the table and did not take any possessions with her.
"It is as though she simply disappeared off the face of the earth."
Detective Inspector Clark said it was a case that the Homicide Squad would dearly like to solve.
"This is a job that tugs at everybody's heartstrings, a lot of people at the Homicide Squad have young children, so it's very, very difficult to cope with the disappearance of a 13-year-old," he said.
Ms Bird urged the public to provide any information, no matter how insignificant it seemed.
"Please have the courage to make the phone call. If you want to stay anonymous, stay anonymous, but please, Prue needs to be buried with dignity, I need to be able to put her to rest."
Investigators have interviewed several persons of interest in relation to the disappearance and suspected murder, but those avenues proved fruitless.
The Office of Public Prosecutions will consider waiving charges to any person who provides information about the case.
The call for information on Prue's disappearance coincides with the start of National Missing Persons Week.
Anyone with information should phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or go to www.crimestoppers.com.au
*Click below on link to article about Hetzel from 1977 -
