Suspect in disappearance of toddler in Australia identified in 55-year quest for justice

SYDNEY - An Australian politician used parliamentary privilege on Oct 23 to reveal the identity of a person who confessed to murdering a three-year-old girl who went missing in 1970, shedding new light on one of Australia’s most notorious unsolved mysteries.

But the media is prohibited under New South Wales law from publishing the name of the man, nicknamed “Mercury”.

Cheryl Grimmer was at a beach near Wollongong – a city south of Sydney – with her family when she disappeared and was never seen again.

Witnesses at the time said they saw a man carrying the girl to the carpark at the beach.

For decades, her parents, who are now dead, and her three older brothers sought to find out what had happened to Cheryl, who was last seen running into a changing room at the beach.

Following the brothers’ appeals for a fresh investigation, police in 2016 found in a box of evidence an old confession by a teenage boy that they believed had not been properly followed up on.

Police tracked down the man, who was 15 when Cheryl disappeared, and charged him in 2017 with murder.

Mercury pleaded not guilty and spent two years in prison awaiting trial.

But he was released in 2019 after a judge ruled the confession could not be used as evidence because the teenager was a minor who was vulnerable and had no guardian or lawyer with him at the time of the confession.

Mercury’s lawyer said he had also confessed to the murder of a prison guard, which turned out to be false.

Cheryl’s case was one of several that prompted the New South Wales Parliament to establish an inquiry on Oct 15 into unsolved murders and long-term missing persons cases in the state between 1965 and 2010.

The inquiry is due to complete a report by June 30, 2026.

Until Oct 23, Mercury’s identity and the details of the confession had remained confidential because of his age at the time of the offence and a court suppression order.

Then the Grimmer family issued an unusual ultimatum, demanding that Mercury speak to them about his original confession by midnight on Oct 22, or else have his name revealed by an MP in New South Wales.

That deadline passed without a response from Mercury.

MP Jeremy Buckingham from the Legalise Cannabis party cried as he read the signed confession, taken on April 29, 1971, in which the boy “said that he abducted Cheryl Grimmer, carried her into the bush, with the intention of sexually assaulting her, and that he strangled her and covered her body with bushes”.

“I did that to the little girl, I didn’t mean to do it,” the boy said in the confession.

“I saw this little girl get a drink from a bubbler (water fountain) outside the change room. Some of the children started to walk away and this little girl hung back. I (came) around from the back of the shower block and grabbed the little girl.

“I took her by the hand and put one hand around her mouth and carried her around to the sand hills… She would not be quiet. So I put my arms around her throat and strangled her… I covered her up with bushes and leaves and threw some dirt on top.”

One of Cheryl’s brothers, Mr Ricki Nash – who reportedly changed his surname due to fears his children could be subject to copycat kidnappings – had said that he took her to drink from a bubbler and that she had showered in the girls’ changing room but refused to return to the beach, so he went to get their mother. Cheryl then disappeared.

Mr Nash believes that only the killer or a witness could have known about his sister drinking from a bubbler.

The confession was dismissed during the initial investigation because of inconsistencies in the boy’s evidence, including his description of taking the girl to a property that had a steel gate and a cattle guard.

The property owner denied the place had a steel gate and cattle guard, but years later, the owner’s son told police that he recalled the property having a steel gate and cattle guard.

In October 2025, a team of volunteers searched the property where Mercury claimed to have buried Cheryl Grimmer. But the search found no remains.

Without fresh evidence, police believe they cannot prosecute Mercury.

Following Mr Buckingham’s address in Parliament, Cheryl’s brother Paul Grimmer attempted to read a statement about the case from the family but broke into tears. His wife Linda read the statement instead, saying: “What we want now is the truth.”

“The details of Mercury’s confession have caused our family immense heartache; however, we are not seeking to harm Mercury or his family,” she said.

“We hope that by speaking out today, members of the public who may hold information will come forward so that Mercury can be questioned in a court of law and justice for Cheryl can finally be served.”

The case has prompted calls for the law to be changed to allow the confession to be admitted by a court and for Mercury to be named.

But New South Wales Attorney-General Michael Daley has rejected the call, saying the law was a necessary “safeguard”.

He said in 2023 that the law was needed to “ensure that young people interviewed by police have adequate protections against self-incrimination in circumstances where there may be unfairness involved, recognising that young people may have particular vulnerabilities”.