I FOUND MY AUNTY SUSAN’S BODY...
35 YEARS AFTER SHE VANISHED When Dylan was a teenager, he made the shock discovery – now he wants to find his relative’s killer
It was actually a family looking for garden mulch in dense bushland in Kiwarrak State Forest on the NSW Mid North Coast who first discovered the human remains of Dylan Walsh’s aunt, Susan Isenhood, 33 years ago.
The grim discovery began one of the most botched and bizarre murder mysteries in the state’s history – from bungled autopsies and inept detective work to rumours of a serial killer at work – and it continues to haunt Susan’s family. It’s also the story of a young man who began searching for a relative he had never met, his gorgeous Aunty Susan, who had vanished after being dropped off in Newcastle by her brother in 1985. Dylan was still a teenager when he began searching the internet in 2003, looking for any evidence of Susan – a beautiful blonde-haired woman he only knew from photographs.
His grandmother, Susan’s mother Elva, also told him about the free-spirited girl who let her whim take her where she wanted, which was a trait that didn’t help when she first vanished.
And it didn’t take long for young Dylan to make inroads.
Just like the family looking for garden mulch 16 years earlier, Dylan came across the unidentified bones from Kiwarrak State Forest off Joes Cutting Road at Possum Brush, south of Taree.
POSITIVE MATCH
The remains were still in a Sydney morgue. For 11 years, it was thought they were of a young male until a forensic pathologist performed a second autopsy in 1998 and determined they actually belonged to a fit young woman.
Dylan had read that some jewellery had also been found with the remains. He started making some phone calls and police arrived with the jewellery – his family were certain they were Susan’s.
A maternal DNA test with Elva confirmed the remains belonged to Susan – but solving the
mystery also left his grieving family searching for even more answers. And that was because of the way in which the 22-year-old died – a significant skull fracture pointed to a violent death. The case is still a murder investigation.
Even now, 35 years after Susan vanished, her killer remains free.
“There are many questions that remain unanswered. And they’re unanswered not because they’re a mystery but because they haven’t even been asked yet,’’ says Dylan.
“There doesn’t seem to have been a lot done. Have they looked at where Susan was living? Have they spoken to her friends? I don’t think they’ve done even the most menial of tasks.
“There seems to be a real lack of logic around the whole case. Of course, it’s cold – they thought it was a boy for more than a decade.
“But even when they identified it as Susan, what has been done? I hazard a guess not a hell of a lot.’’
Susan’s family believe she was last seen on October 2, 1985. It was her brother Robert’s birthday and he remembers later dropping her off in the Newcastle suburb of Mayfield, possibly at a train station.
Susan also suffered from a mental illness, and had left a psychiatric facility 12 days before she disappeared. Dylan still questions whether her mental state may have contributed to her case being shelved.
“We still don’t know exactly when she disappeared, to be honest. We’re guessing,’’ says Dylan.
“And I find it really tough to understand how such a lifechanging date can be forgotten. Did the missing person’s report exist and was overlooked or what?
“She used to take off for periods of time, but what was her last permanent place of abode? What ever happened to her clothing? You might take off for a while, but there’s always a base you get back to.’’
‘There seems to be a real lack of logic around the whole case’