30 YEARS ON MURDER AT THE MILK BAR
FRECKLED SCHOOLGIRL SHEREE BEASLEY WAS RIDING HER BIKE WHEN SHE WAS SNATCHED BY A MONSTER
Sheree Beasley was the picture of childhood innocence. The freckled little schoolgirl with messy hair loved riding her bike around her family’s Rosebud home, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Sheree, then 6, would often be spotted pedalling furiously around her neighbourhood and was a frequent visitor to the local milk bar, which was just 400m from her house.
Thirty years ago, it was perfectly normal for children to ride around their neighbourhood all by themselves. And it wasn’t unusual for Sheree to roam free. She bounced around from the custody of her mum, Kerri, to her grandparents for much of her young life.
But Sheree had no idea she was being
watched. Someone sinister had their eye on her and they were waiting to pounce.
On June 19, 1991, Sheree was riding her pink bike to the milk bar when she was snatched by the arms of a monster. Robert Lowe, a father of two, had seen Sheree alone several times before. He targeted the little girl as she zoomed by, just metres from the safety of her home. Lowe, a Sunday school teacher and travelling salesman, quickly bundled a screaming Sheree into his blue Toyota Corolla and drove her to a remote area. There, 54-year-old Lowe sexually assaulted Sheree before choking her to death.
He stuffed the schoolgirl’s body into a drain and took her little pink helmet home, dumping it in a nearby bin. Her body wouldn’t be found for three months.
Sheree’s sudden disappearance sparked a police manhunt in greater Melbourne. But it wasn’t until Lowe’s psychotherapist, Margaret Hobbs, flagged the church leader to police that detectives zeroed in on him. Margaret made an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers, warning police she thought her client may have had something to do with Sheree’s abduction.
An exhaustive check of vehicles matching the one at the scene of the abduction led police to Lowe’s door.
Lowe lied about his whereabouts the day Sheree went missing and police found child pornography inside his home, making him a prime suspect. Lowe’s sordid criminal past also rang alarm bells. He had been charged with a string of sex offences in New Zealand
before moving to Australia, and served time behind bars.
Without forensic evidence linking Lowe to the crime, police were forced to surveil him for two years. Detectives even taped his mandated counselling sessions, hoping for an armchair confession. It wasn’t until Lowe penned his own murder confession and stuffed it into his pocket that police were able to swoop.
The child killer was arrested for petty theft when the note was found in the pocket of his pants.
While facing trial, the court heard Lowe had boasted about killing Sheree while in custody. He told fellow inmates he choked her to death while forcing her to perform sex acts.
In 1994, he was convicted of kidnapping and murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
On the 23rd anniversary of Sheree’s death, her mother Kerri was traumatised all over again when Lowe penned a letter from inside prison. He asked for his release and begged authorities to reinvestigate the case.
“He is evil. He is not a man,” Kerri told 7News at the time.
It has been 30 years since Sheree’s death and a stillgrieving Kerri, who now has two young granddaughters, misses her cheeky little girl.
“My second, my youngest daughter, reminds my mum of Sheree every single day,” said Sheree’s sister, Jacinta.
Lowe remains behind bars and his file has been marked ‘never to be released’.
• If you have any information on a crime, contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 1800 333 000 or visit crimestoppers.com.au