35-YEAR FOOTPRINT
Police allege DNA taken from a car window days after brutal killing of Gold Coast newlywed in 1983 led to cold case breakthrough
Linda Reed’s savage murder on December 13, 1983 has haunted her family, police and the broader Gold Coast community ever since. Yesterday came the breakthrough we all hoped for. A packet of menthol cigarettes found scrunched up in the back of Linda’s Mazda sedan and a fingerprint found in another car were collected as part of the murder investigation file. Nearly 35 years later, those clues allegedly link Troy James O’Meara (main image above) to the crime. But that explosive discovery could only be detected with recent advancements in forensic technology and criminal databasing.
DNA and fingerprinting technology has allegedly helped to unravel one of the most intriguing cold cases on the Gold Coast.
A scrunched up packet of cigarettes and a fingerprint on a car window will be the alleged link between the grisly murder of Linda Reed 35 years ago and her alleged killer Troy James O’Meara, 51.
Police yesterday hailed the work of forensic officers, both those who worked the crime scene in Gaven on December 16, 1983 and the scientists who helped bring the murder charge against O’Meara.
The empty cigarette packet found in the back of Ms Reed’s car, metres from the scene of the crime, was part of an incredible investigation that led police to O’Meara, a man who hadn’t even come on their radar 35 years ago.
Police will allege days later, a man driving a Toyota HiAce picked up a hitchhiker in the area. He was smoking the same brand of cigarettes found in Ms Reed’s car, but didn’t have the packet.
The driver contacted police who took a fingerprint from the passenger-side window.
Nearly four decades later, police will allege the fingerprint is O’Meara’s.
It may come as little comfort for Ms Reed’s family, who lost their daughter, sister and wife, at just 21.
She was a shop assistant at McDonnell and East, a former store inside Pacific Fair.
Married for two years to her husband Robert, they were planning on starting a family. Then just like that, Linda disappeared, and three days later her body was found in bushland at Gaven.
Yesterday, Homicide detective Senior Sergeant Chris Knight said the forensic leap forward helped bring the case to a head. They arrested O’Meara early on Wednesday.
“In the early ’80s DNA was not being used. It simply wasn’t available to investigators,” Sen-Sgt Knight said.
“Conventional DNA became available in the mid-tolate ’90s and started becoming important in criminal trials.
IT’S BEEN 35 YEARS SINCE MY WIFE WAS TAKEN FROM ME, FROM NANCY AND OSCAR HER PARENTS AND PHILIPP HER BROTHER. WE WANT TO THANK THE POLICE FOR NEVER GIVING UP ON TRYING TO FIND LINDA’S MURDERER. ROBERT REED
“Since then DNA testing has increased significantly in terms of the capacity and the ability to detect and find DNA profiles, that perhaps, even in the early DNA stages, were simply not available.
“We have explored a wide range of forensic opportunities, which has been a signifi- cant contribution to (the) arrest.
“There has been a fairly broad range of very contemporary forensic work done.
“Forensic officers have played a significant role in the advancement of this investigation.”
He said the advancements in forensic technology had pointed police towards O’Meara, a man they hadn’t even questioned in the 1980s in relation to Ms Reed’s murder.
“His name did not come up in the early investigation and it’s been in the relative recent past when it’s come up.
“I’m not talking in the last months or anything, I’m talking in recent years.”
Police will allege O’Meara acted alone.
She never returned from her lunchbreak at Pacific Fair was never seen alive again.
“Her car was found a very short distance away from where Linda’s body was found and I can only assume that something happened there and he took her under some circumstances to where she was ultimately found,” Sen-Sgt Knight said.
“It was a particularly horrific attack.”
Ms Reed’s husband Robert Reed yesterday paid an emotional tribute to the police work.
“It’s been 35 years since my wife was taken from me, from Nancy and Oscar her parents and Philipp her brother,” Mr Reed said.
“We want to thank the police for never giving up on trying to find Linda’s murderer.
“We cannot thank the Queensland Police enough.”
Hours later Troy James O’Meara sat with his hands in his lap and showed no emotion during his less than two six minute bail hearing in a Brisbane court.
Dressed in a prison issued green tracksuit, the steely gazed 51-year-old stared straight ahead as he was remanded in custody to appear next month.
O’Meara is burly chested, with long white hair and a goatee that reaches down to his chest. He kept quiet and lumbered out of the court following the short appearance.
He is due to reappear in court on September 24.