Eloise Worledge (8 October 1967 – disappeared 12 January 1976) is a missing person, who as an eight-year-old girl was abducted from her home in Beaumaris, Victoria, Australia.
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Her brother raised the alarm about her disappearance when he noticed she was not in her room at 7.30am. He later told police he heard "robbers" who kidnapped his sister, but was too scared to say anything at the time because he thought they would take him too. There was no sign of a struggle. Police believed that Eloise was lured from her bed by someone whom she knew and trusted and simply left the house via the front door, which had been left unlocked. Another possibility not discounted was that Worledge may have been abducted by a prowler known to be in the area at the time.
A dark green car speeding down Scott Street at 2am was reported by a neighbour. Bark from a tree outside her window was found on her bedroom floor. A small hole had been cut in the flyscreen in her window, but forensic tests revealed it had been cut from the inside. Police believed it was too small to have been used by the abductor, because scientific evidence found it unlikely that Eloise was taken through her open bedroom window. Both parents were initially treated as suspects.[1]
Despite one of the biggest searches in Victoria's history and a $10,000 reward posted in 1976 that remains unclaimed, no trace of her has ever been found. Homicide cold case detectives also reinvestigated the case in 2001, to no avail.[2]