THE DAY MUM JUST VANISHED
Daughter’s desperate search for answers in Gold Coast cold case
WHEN Tina Greer’s bikie boyfriend died, her daughter Lili broke down in tears. But not for him. Speaking for the first time about the tragedy of losing her mother in a suspected murder plot, Lili Greer told the Bulletin why she cried over the death of Les “Grumpy” Sharman and how she hopes a $250,000 reward now being offered by the Queensland Police Service can provide closure in the eight-year mystery.
Lili Greer was just 13 when she spent a January day with her mum shopping on the Gold Coast for the start of the school year in 2012.
She never saw her again. Now 21 and living interstate, the university student said she was worried Sharman’s death might lead to a dead-end for the long-running investigation.
Sharman was long considered a “person of interest” by investigators, but was never arrested in connection to the case and died in a car crash in late 2018.
“I cried,” she said.
“But not for him.
“I was angry.
“I just wanted to know what happened to my mum.
“He was the last person to see mum alive, so when he died, I thought all the answers went with him. That’s why the reward is a good thing.
“It’s been a long time coming, but hopefully it brings someone forward to help solve it.”
After having some struggles with personal issues, Tina Greer had forged a tight bond with her daughter and told those people close to her that she was making a fresh start and had everything to live for.
After the girls’ shopping trip, she dropped her Lili at a friend’s place and headed west to visit Sharman, her onagain, off-again boyfriend of five years.
She was due to return to the Gold Coast the following day, but never arrived.
“I knew something was wrong,” Lili said. “We spoke every day, so when she didn’t come back, I knew something bad must have happened.”
Lili said she had begged
Sharman – who did not consent to interviews with detectives investigating, beyond detailing an initial missing persons report – to talk to police.
“I said ‘if he didn’t do anything, then why wouldn’t he come to the police station?’,” she said.
“But he wouldn’t do it.”
Birthdays – Tina would have been 41 on Australia Day – holidays and Mother’s Days have all left a hole for Lili, whose social media accounts are filled with tributes to her mum to mark important dates.
Losing her mum at such a young age could have broken the young teen.
But it didn’t. She spent several years in the Army Cadets, aced school and is now studying a double degree in anthropology and international relations at university.
Lili said that she now remembered the last time she saw her mother with a mixture of great sorrow, but also inspiration.
“If I had got in that car with her, I don’t know what would have happened to me either,” she said.
“I definitely struggled for a while there, but eventually 100 per cent I looked at it like maybe it was a second chance for me and I threw myself into everything I could and really devoted myself to those things.
“It was how I coped.
“I just wanted to make mum proud of me.”
HE WAS THE LAST PERSON TO SEE MUM ALIVE SO WHEN HE DIED, I THOUGHT ALL THE ANSWERS WENT WITH HIM
LILI GREER
I JUST WANTED TO MAKE MUM PROUD OF ME
LILI GREER