Sarah MacDiarmid (born 15 November 1966) was a 23-year-old Scottish-Australian woman who disappeared from

Kananook railway station Kananook railway station is located on the Frankston line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Seaford, and it opened on 25 August 1975. History Kananook station opened on 25 August 1975, and was named aft ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia on 11 July 1990. She is presumed murdered, although no trace of her body has ever been found.

Disappearance

MacDiarmid, who emigrated with her family in 1987 from the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...

to Australia, had been playing tennis after work with two friends at what was then known as Flinders Park in Batman Avenue,

East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of ...

, before walking to Richmond station, where they found that they had just missed a Frankston line train. They caught a train to Caulfield, then changed to a Frankston service. MacDiarmid's friends disembarked this train at Bonbeach while she remained, continuing on to Kananook station where her vehicle was parked. She was last seen alighting the train and heading for the poorly lit car park at approximately 10:20 p.m.

Investigation

Police suspected that MacDiarmid had been assaulted, based on bloodstains found beside her red 1978 Honda Civic abandoned in the station car park, and drag marks leading into the bushes. A cigarette lighter belonging to MacDiarmid was discovered on the ground, but no trace of her was ever found. Later, witnesses said MacDiarmid got off the train and crossed the footbridge to the car park, where some people heard a woman shouting, "Give me back my keys!". An extensive 21-day air, sea and land search, involving more than 250 police, produced no results. In May 2006, an inquest held by coroner Ian West, found MacDiarmid "had met her death as a result of foul play but the exact circumstances were unknown". An initial State Government reward of $50,000 was increased after an additional $75,000 was offered by an anonymous benefactor. That was increased to $1 million in 2004, and remains current. In 2011, convicted Australian

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

Paul Denyer was interviewed by police and denied any involvement in MacDiarmid's disappearance. Denyer stated to the interviewer, Detective Ron Iddles that he was "sick of being accused of murder", and later wrote to Iddles, thanking him for informing the public of him not being involved in the matter. In May 2014, News Corp Australia claimed police investigators considered convicted Australian

Bandali Debs Bandali Michael Debs (born 18 July 1953) is an Australian convicted serial killer currently serving four consecutive terms of life imprisonment plus 27 years for the murder of two Victoria Police officers in August 1998 and for the 1997 murder ...

to be a suspect in the case.

Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...

quoted a "senior police source" who said "it was 'common practice' for homicide investigators to examine links between unsolved murders and known offenders". A

Victoria Police Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''. , Victoria Police had over 22,300 staff, comprising over 16,700 ...

spokesperson declined to comment to

as MacDiarmid's disappearance was an "active" case.

Aftermath

The

cold case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or r ...

was featured in the first episode of the Australian psychic TV series '' Sensing Murder'', which aired on Network Ten in September 2004. The psychics used by this programme opined that MacDiarmid had been murdered and her body thrown into a now-closed rubbish dump on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geo ...

. In 2010, marking the 20th anniversary of MacDiarmid's disappearance, her family and friends visited Kananook railway station to leave wreaths at a memorial established there. Her family also announced they had created a website ''Not Alone'' which was 'designed to help other families who find themselves in a position similar to them'. Police used the anniversary to issue a new call for information on the case with Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Dannye Moloney stating 'You do not close the books on these sorts of crimes... History proves that if you continue to communicate with the people out there, in Victoria, in Australia, in the world in some cases, that piece of information, that key will come forward and we'll solve it.' In 2021, a nine part Australian crime podcast named ''Searching for Sarah Macdiarmid'' was released. Hosted and written by author Vikki Petraitis, the podcast focuses on the backstory of MacDiarmid, her disappearance, and the subsequent investigation.

References

External links

The Doe Network: Case File 1730DFVICNot Alone
– established by the family of Sarah MacDiarmid. {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdiarmid, Sarah 1966 births 1990 in Australia 1990s in Melbourne 1990s missing person cases 1990 murders in Australia Australian people of Scottish descent Incidents of violence against women Missing person cases in Australia Unsolved murders in Australia Possibly living people Violence against women in Australia Murder in Melbourne Women in Melbourne

Disappearance

Investigation

Aftermath

See also

References

External links