DAD I NEVER KNEW
The daughter Ricky Balcombe never met hasn’t let his murder stop her from living life to the fullest
Ricky Balcombe was murdered at just 16. Now meet his namesake daughter Rickii-Lee, born just months after the Market Square killing. Today her family tells of how she grew up in the shadow of Geelong’s most notorious murder case and her reaction to this week’s verdict
PLUS Rickii-Lee’s mother reveals that Balcombe was heading to Myer to buy his baby a gift on the day that he was killed, writes JEMMA RYAN.
THE daughter of murdered teen Ricky Balcombe, who bears the name of the father she never knew, has been quietly carving a life for herself in the town he grew up in.
The revelation Balcombe had fathered a child before he was killed in Market Square on May 5, 1995, surfaced at the Supreme Court trial that found Karl Hague guilty of his murder this week.
Balcombe’s now 22-year-old daughter, Rickii-Lee Church, is living a life full of the rich, everyday experiences of young adulthood her father never had the chance to know.
In a cruel twist, Balcombe had only learnt he was going to be a father weeks before his death but was making plans to buy accessories for his baby.
The would-be teen dad had not yet wrapped his head around what parenthood would look like for him and the mother of his unborn child, Donna Church.
This week Ms Church spoke for the first time of the “bittersweet” period in her life.
“We weren’t a couple . . . it wasn’t as if we were going to make home. I was actually living at a youth hostel at the time, in between couches and the streets,” she said.
“But the day of (Ricky’s death) he was talking about going into Myer . . . and he was going to get the baby something.”
Ms Church said the decision to name the child — whose gender Ricky did not know — after her late father was an easy one.
“It wasn’t something I really thought about. From the day he died, either way (boy or girl), it was going to be Rickii,” she said.
When the pair had met in the Little Malop St Mall, Ms Church was instantly taken by his charm and drawn to his warmth.
“I thought he was the ant’s pants,” she said.
“He was a really nice person. A lot of people in his group didn’t talk to my sort of people, but he was always polite, and happy and fun.
“He was just your normal, average, fun-loving teenager. He got into his mischief but nothing (major) . . . he wasn’t some sort of thug.”
Pregnant and with little support, Ms Church was taken in by her father and stepmum.
As Rickii-Lee grew, her mother felt obliged to let her know her tragic family history.
Rickii-Lee was in primary school when Ms Church told her the grim truth about her father.
“I always had a folder with photos to show her, and all the clippings. When she got to a certain age she was given the folder to look over,” Ms Church said.
When Rickii-Lee celebrated her 16th birthday she had to face the emotional reality she would soon be older than her dad ever had the chance to be.
“All the milestones, her deb and her 18th and 21st, they’re all hard,” Ms Church said.
“Her deb was one of those times — her grandfather was the one who presented her, everyone else had their fathers.”
As the years went by, Rickii-Lee’s curiosity grew and questions about what her father was like and who took him away from her would not relent.
“She has always known who was suspected, but she didn’t have an opinion on it. She just hoped one day that they would find out who did it,” Ms Church said.
But for Ms Church, there has only ever been one suspect — Karl Hague: “It hasn’t been a doubt in my mind.”
The resurgence of media interest in the cold case in recent years, including the airing of Channel 7’s Million Dollar Cold Case program, was difficult on Rickii-Lee.
“It was quite an emotional last 12 months for her really, for us both, but more for her,” Ms Church said.
“Even if she didn’t want to (follow the case) she had no choice . . . it was constant. But she coped with it a lot better than I had expected.
“I think there is a weight off her shoulders now, more so, too, for (Ricky’s parents) Graeme and Christine. I am happy that they have finally got some answers and that Ricky can rest now.”
When the jury came back on Monday with its verdict that Hague had killed Ricky, it was Rickii-Lee who broke the news to her mother.
“Rickii-Lee was actually at work. She contacted me about 10.30 in the morning. She was elated. Really shocked, surprised, happy,” Ms Church said.
“She was emotional . . . It’s hard to put into words (how we feel).”
She said despite her decision to stay in Geelong, she had tried to protect her daughter from the
attention that went with being connected to such a notorious crime.
“We’ve just tried to keep it quiet. A lot of people didn’t know until (it was mentioned in court),” she said.
“I didn’t want to be in the spotlight . . . I chose to remain quiet.
“Rickii-Lee’s life would have been a lot different if it was really out there who we were.”
But Rickii-Lee has not let the ghosts of the past hold back her future.
A graduate of North Geelong Secondary College, she works parttime as a greyhound trainer while studying veterinary subjects at university.
“I was told, being a single mum so young, Rickii-Lee wasn’t really going to amount to much but she finished her VCE and has always worked since the day she could,” Ms Church said.
“She is driven to make sure she makes a life for herself.”
Family photographs tell the story of a well-travelled, widely liked, animal-loving young woman.
They document milestones such as her graduation, schoolies and 21st birthday and self-funded trips to the Greek islands, Dubai, Bali and Port Douglas.
“She has grown into a wonderful young woman, very strong and driven . . . I am very proud,” she said.
Ms Church credits her daughter’s groundedness with being surrounded by positive role models, including Ms Church’s father and stepmother.
“They had a lot to do with how she is now. I don’t know what I would have done if I was still on the streets when I had her,” she said.
Rickii-Lee was born to a single mum and a murdered father. Her father’s case has had many twists and turns, not least this week’s guilty verdict that closed the book on a killing that had gone unsolved for 23 years.
But of all the surprises in this saga perhaps Rickii-Lee is the best — a daughter who would make any father proud.