A compartment under a bed in a room at a motel once occupied by a murdered woman 21 years ago has provided new evidence police hope will crack the cold case.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The discovery of a handsaw blade, a business card for a United Kingdom insurance company, toilet roll, the butt of a rifle and a used condom were revealed yesterday at the second inquest into the 1991 murder of 20-year-old Penny Hill at Coolah.
Tamworth Coroner’s Court was told the new evidence was found in February when the current owners of the Black Stump Motel began renovating a store room that was previously the room occupied by Penny Hill when she moved to Coolah for a week-long trial as a nanny.
Detective Sergeant Jason Darcy told the court the items had undergone forensic testing and that male DNA uncovered had so far not been matched.
The items were found when a single bed was pulled apart in the store room during renovations.
Penny Hill, who had come to Coolah from Narrabri, had stayed in the room for three days.
She was found unconscious and badly beaten by school teacher Susan Brown near the gate of a property on Cassilis Rd on the morning of Monday, July 8.
Ms Brown said she had witnessed “the work of a bad man” and recounted finding near Penny’s hand the cord of an electric kettle
which was consistent with the injuries found on the young woman’s neck.
Penny Hill died in John Hunter Hospital at Newcastle two weeks later.
She had arrived at the motel on July 5 where she began her trial as the nanny for then motel owners Barbara and Colin Baigent’s three children.
Mr Baigent was the drummer for the rock group Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs in the 1960s and had a career in radio before he and Barbara moved to Coolah.
Ms Brown, a science teacher, recorded her observations on that day in a notebook which was tendered to the court.
She said she initially thought Penny had fallen off a horse but her un-dishevelled appearance and clean ugg-boots were not consistent with the sticky black soil where she had been dumped.
“I don’t know what’s happened here, nothing adds up,” she told the first police officer to arrive at the scene.
Penny Hill’s mother made an emotional appeal for the public’s help to solve the crime.
In a statement read to the court by Crown Barrister Warwick Hunt Jeanette Hill told of the pain she had endured.
“Unless you have lost a child, you have no idea how I feel and how hard the last 21-years have been not knowing what happened to Penny.
“If anyone out there has information please come forward and help us solve this crime.
“No matter where I go or what I do, she is always with me in my heart.”
Mrs Hill, her husband Felix, Penny’s brother and three other family members sat at the back of the courtroom yesterday.
Detective Darcy told the court yesterday police had been unable to track down an anonymous caller to Crime Stoppers in 2003 who police believed could assist them with valuable information about the case.
The court was told the anonymous source said they were a government employee who was unsure if they could divulge information because of their occupation.
When police tracked the call it led them to the switchboard of Long Bay prison but they were unable to identify who made the call.
Detective Darcy renewed his appeal for that anonymous caller to come forward. He also told the court partial DNA evidence belonging to a man was found on the clothing Ms Hill was wearing on the night she was beaten, but the technology did not exist to process the samples any further.
The court was told a professional golfer had also agreed to submit a DNA sample which was on its way to police from New Zealand.
Detective Darcy conceded the items found in the store room could be linked to the case or may not have any direct links at all.
As many as 20 witnesses are expected to give evidence in the inquest which is expected to run for at least four days before Deputy State Coroner Sharon Freund.
One of them will be Viola Davis who the Crown said heard a pleading female voice saying “help me, help me” in the hours of the morning before Penny was found.
Deputy Coroner Freund extended her condolences to the Hill family before yesterday’s proceedings.
“How she came to be on the side of the road so many years ago is why we are here today,” she said.
“This inquest may resolve some questions you have into how Penny met her early demise.”