Tanya Maree NICHOLLS
Tanya Maree NICHOLLS
/NSW/NICHOLLS-Tania-NSW_393x500.jpg)
| DOB: | 1972 | ||||
| HAIR: | Brown | BUILD: | Thin | EYES: | Brown |
|
Age when disappeared - 16 years.
Missing since:
Thursday, September 1, 1988
Last seen:
Bellambi, NSW
Responsible jurisdiction:
NSW
Year of birth:
1971
Gender:
Female
Height:
155cm
Build:
Thin
Hair:
Fair
Eyes:
Brown
Complexion:
Fair
Distinguishing Features:
Butterfly tattoo on back
CIRCUMSTANCES:
|
|||||
| In September 1988 Tanya left her grand-parents' home in Fairy Meadow NSw, possibly to go to live in Bondi with an unknown person. There has only been one telephone call to relatives since that time. | |||||
Tanya,
If you are reading this please know you are so badly missed by all your
family. Since you have been gone you have gotten new family members and a
few have passed on. We just want to know where you are and if you are O.K.
You are always the one missing from our family gatherings.
Your family think of you daily and you are always in our hearts.
If you are reading this or if any of you know Tanya please get in touch
with us and release our fears and worries.
From Cousin Trudie.
A Bellambi mother has lived every parent's nightmare for the past 20 years - wondering if she'll ever see her daughter again. Dianne* said there was not a day that went by when she did not think of her daughter, Tanya Marie Nicholls, or worry about her welfare." There's always the constant questions. Every winter I think, 'Is my daughter cold? Is she hungry? Is she being abused - or worse?' "Tanya is one of 34 long-term missing persons from the Illawarra highlighted for 2008 Missing Persons Week. Dianne, who has four children, said her daughter fell in with the wrong crowd at age 15 and rebellious arguments followed before she disappeared in September 1988."There were some mother-daughter disagreements - 'You're not doing that', 'I'll do what I like' sort of thing," Dianne said. "We were called by Kings Cross police one night just before she disappeared. They'd picked her up. I brought her home. I got up the next morning and she was gone." She came back four days later, went to stay at her grandparents at Fairy Meadow and disappeared from there. "Myself and my ex-husband, Tanya's father, we scoured Kings Cross, Oxford St, all those different places. We haven't seen or heard from her since. Night after night ... I think, she can't be deceased, they don't just grab bodies and put them in the ground ... but what if she died in hospital under another name?" In recent years, health battles including breast cancer and a slight heart attack have left Dianne, 54, nervous about her own mortality. "If I die, I want to die knowing it's ended. That she's either been put to rest or she's been found." Tanya's younger sister, Vanessa, now a mother of four, said she thought about her sister and the things they never got a chance to share. Tanya has two distinctive tattoos - a dragon on the back of her right shoulder and a small insect on her right shoulder blade. She has been known to go by the name Marie Ann Owen. Dianne said it was important Tanya understood that she was loved. "I want her to know that I love her and I want to hear anything," she said. "She has to know she is loved and missed."
* Dianne's surname has been withheld at the family's request.
An argument over a boyfriend is believed to be the reason Tanya Nicholls took off from her family’s Fairy Meadow home in September of 1988, never to be seen by them again.
Tanya – one of four children – was aged 16 at the time and had fallen in with the wrong crowd, according to her mother Dianne Parker.
“Unfortunately the day she went missing her and I had an
argument over a boyfriend that I didn’t approve of,” Ms
Parker said.
“He was someone who had a criminal record, not the sort of person you want your 16-year-old daughter hanging around with. So we had a huge argument, and that was the last time I saw her.”
More than 10,000 people are reported missing each year
across NSW. The plight of their family and friends is being
highlighted by authorities for National Missing Person’s
Week.
“The thing with a missing person, there are so many
unanswered questions – you don’t know where, how, when,” Ms
Parker said.
“Sometimes your mind can go off into places you don’t want
it to go. You have nothing and no-one can give you any
answers to that, so it just remains a big hole you can’t
fill.”
Thankfully, around 98 per cent of people reported missing are found withing a week. Though there are still more than 2,600 people listed as long-term missing persons in Australia.
“If Tanya’s out there and is alive, I want her to know she has nothing to fear by saying ‘hi, here I am’,” Ms Parker said.
“I know some people they go missing they think the hard work is to come back because they think ‘that person has forgotten about me’ or ‘I can’t just show up again, here I am’ but for her I want her to know she can.”
Ms Nicholls was also known to use the alias Marie Ann Owen and has two distinctive tattoos – a dragon on her right shoulder and a small insect on her right shoulder blade.
NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman said friends and family members of those missing a loved one do not need to suffer alone.
“Counselling from trained professionals is available from the Families and Friends of Missing Persons Unit which does an incredible job supporting people as they deal with the stress of not knowing what has happened to a loved one,” he said.
If you have information on a person reported missing, contact your local police station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Police are profiling a woman who went missing from the Illawarra three
decades ago.
Tanya Nicholls, then aged 16, was reported missing by her family after having left her grandparent’s home on the Princes Highway, Fairy Meadow in September 1988.
It’s believed she went to live with an unknown person in Bondi, police
said.
At the time of her disappearance, Ms Nicholls was described as being of Caucasian appearance, with fair hair and brown eyes. She has two distinctive tattoos – a dragon on her right shoulder and a small insect on her right shoulder blade.
Ms Nicholls was also known to use the alias Marie Ann Owen.
The renewed appeal is part of the 30-year anniversary of Missing Persons Week, an annual campaign to raise awareness of the issues and impacts surround people who go missing.
Anyone with information about her whereabouts is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.