Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon

Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon

The Sunday Mail's front page on the day after Ratcliffe and Gordon disappeared
Date 25 August 1973
Duration Missing for 43 years, 11 months and 22 days
Venue Adelaide Oval
Location Adelaide, South Australia
Type abduction

Joanne Ratcliffe (born 1962)[1] and Kirste Gordon (born 1969)[2] were two Australian girls who went missing while attending an Australian rules football match at the Adelaide Oval on 25 August 1973. Ratcliffe and Gordon's disappearance, and presumed abduction and murder,[3] became one of South Australia's most well known crimes. The presumed murders are sometimes thought to be related to the Beaumont children disappearance in 1966.

Disappearance

Joanne's parents and Kirste's grandmother had allowed the two girls to leave their group to go to the toilet. They were seen several times in the 90 minutes after leaving the oval, apparently distressed and in the company of an unknown man, but they vanished after the last reported sighting.[3] The police sketch of the man last seen with the two girls resembles that of the man last seen with the Beaumont children.[4]

Investigation

Witness reports led police to believe that they were abducted by a middle aged man.[5][6] Police were following leads as late as 2014.[7]

Aftermath

The case was mentioned in a Woman's Day 2011 article as part of a postscript on "Australian kidnapping mysteries involving children [that] tug at our heartstrings long after they faded from the news".[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "RATCLIFFE Joanne". National Missing Persons Coordination Centre. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  2. ↑ "GORDON Kirste". National Missing Persons Coordination Centre. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 2017-03-21.
  3. 1 2 "Inquest on Adelaide Oval girls". The Age. 10 July 1979. p. 6. Retrieved 12 August 2009.
  4. ↑ Grace, Lynton (14 January 2014). "South Australia's most notorious unsolved crimes and mysteries: The Beaumont children - 1966". The Advertiser. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  5. ↑ "Boy 'saw man forcing girls'.". The Canberra Times. ACT: National Library of Australia. 31 August 1973. p. 3. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "Police go to oval.". The Canberra Times. ACT: National Library of Australia. 3 September 1973. p. 1. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  7. ↑ McNab, Heather (18 September 2014). "Accused paedophile's grandfather linked to disappearance of two children 41 years ago". Daily Mail. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  8. ↑ Glen Williams (19 September 2011), Kidnap Horror We Want Our Daughter Back; Siriyakorn has been missing for 14 weeks, but her family refuses to give up hope, Australia: Woman's Day General OneFile. Web.

Further reading

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