Lucille case legal threat
THE family of Lucille Butterworth are considering legal action over Tasmania Police’s handling of new witness information into her mystery disappearance 50 years ago.
Lucille’s family say they have lost faith in the police investigation, claiming they did not act quickly enough on information from the new witness. “It has been a total stuff-up by Tasmania Police,” Lucille’s niece Kassie-Lee McDiarmid said.
TASMANIA Police’s handling of new witness information into the case of Lucille Butterworth has prompted members of her family to consider legal action.
The Tasmanian model vanished from a Claremont bus stop on August 25, 1969 in what is today marked as the state’s most documented cold case investigation and one that has troubled the Butterworth family for decades.
In 2016 police commissioner Darren Hine apologised to the Butterworth family over deficiencies in the initial investigation saying “while I cannot explain the actions or attitudes of investigators at the time, I can assure both Ms Butterworth’s family and the Tasmanian community that policing has changed significantly since 1969”.
But members of Lucille’s family say a breakdown in communication between them and Tasmania Police over information relating to the case is seeing “history repeat itself”.
Witness information was given to police last month by a man, now in his 60s, who overheard a conversation between two men — one of whom allegedly admitted to dumping a woman’s body on Hobart’s outskirts. The witness said the admission came from Geoffrey Charles Hunt, who was found by coroner Simon Cooper in 2016 to have killed Lucille.
Despite the coronial findings there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Hunt — who spent 22 years in prison for the murder and rape of 24-yearold Susan Knight.
Police deputy commissioner Scott Tilyard told the Mercury the latest witness information was investigated by police and a man was spoken to in relation to the investigation but “it did not reveal a certain line of inquiry”.
He said he did not know how long the latest witness information had been with police when asked if the statement was in police possession months before the Butterworth family was informed.
From 2011-15 the case was spearheaded by a team of investigators — Cary Millhouse, Christine Rushton and the now retired David Plumpton.
Mr Tilyard said the latest line of inquiry was investigated by “experienced people” despite no involvement from the three officers who led the case for four years from 2011 — a police decision which has outraged the Butterworth family.
“It has been a total stuff-up by Tasmania Police,” Lucille’s niece Kassie-Lee McDiarmid said.
“The police shot themselves in the foot by approaching the latest witness information without the most informed investigators leading the charge,” she said.
She said she was considering suing Tasmania Police over the handling of the investigation.
She said it was hard to watch her father, Jim Butterworth, die without the answers he had searched for.
Mr Tilyard said Ms Rushton remained the analyst involved with the case and said Mr Millhouse had been “transferred to another area”.
He said police were committed to keeping the family informed about incoming information related to Lucille.