A brutal murder. A family’s pain. And the hunt for justice
LINDA Reed had a wonderful life ahead of her, with plans to have a family with the man she was head over heels in love with – and then it was all cruelly snatched away.
A killer struck as she tried to find peace and quiet in a car park while taking sanctuary from the Christmas crowds at the Pacific Fair shopping centre on December 13, 1983.
The attractive 21-year-old had been married for two years and building her dream home with husband Robert.
Linda was a shop assistant at McDonnell and East, a former department store at Pacific Fair. The Gold Coast’s busiest shopping centre was awash with Christmas shoppers and when she took her lunch break, she headed for her car to eat her sandwich.
Linda did not return. The alarm was raised during the afternoon.
Within hours, Linda’s devoted husband was conducting a futile search of the Pacific Fair car parks and favourite haunts of his wife.
Later he would say how it amazed him that Linda could disappear from a car park in front of all those shoppers.
“All that time after Linda died, I didn’t sleep except for about four hours a night,” said Rob.
“I’d just lie in the dark and think of the why, the who and the how, especially why. Why Linda? She was as sweet as an angel. I would rack my brain. How was it possible for a girl like Linda to leave her job at McDonnell and East for a bit of lunch and not come back?’’
Three days after her disappearance, Linda’s car – filled with Christmas presents – was found abandoned in bushland at Gaven, which has since become suburbia.
Her bound and gagged body was found less than 100m away.
Linda’s hands had been tied behind her back with a bikini ROBERT REED
top and a piece of blue cord. The straps of her dress and bra had also been wrapped around her wrists.
It was believed she had been sexually assaulted, tied up and left to drown in a creek puddle.
A large-scale appeal for witnesses and information followed, with police setting up exhibits with a mannequin, photographs and Linda’s car in a bid to jog the memories of thousands of shoppers.
The investigation turned up little information, but three years later there came a breakthrough.
A convicted murderer, Craig Andrew McConnell, was charged with Linda’s death. He went to trial after allegedly confessing to a fellow inmate at Brisbane’s Boggo Road jail, which has since been shut down.
But McConnell was acquitted due to insufficient evidence after the chief witness died of a heroin overdose shortly before the trial.
Pathologist Dr Tony Ansford gave evidence at McConnell’s failed hearing that Linda probably drowned in the muddy creek bed. He said grit, mud and copious quantities of fluid were found in her airways.
Her body was partly decomposed and Dr Ansford said he could not tell if she had been strangled.
Years later, Linda’s mother Nancy Fein told the Bulletin – in 2016 – she prayed she would live to see justice.
“My husband has passed away and as you can appreciate, I’m getting older as well,” she said.
“It would be so nice to see justice done, it’s gone on for so long now and I’m running out of time.”
In 2010 her husband and Linda’s father, Oskar Fein, had revealed he had been diag- nosed with kidney cancer and feared he could die before his daughter’s killer was brought to justice.
Tragically, his fear was realised but at the time he said the hunt for answers to the mystery had taken on a new urgency.
“I just want to know what happened to my beautiful daughter,’’ he said. “I deserve that. It’s always been terrifying to think we could never find out who killed want answers.’’
The grieving couple told how their hearts had broken when they learned their “beautiful and happy’’ daughter had been murdered.
“It hurts to know Linda’s killer is still out there, walking around living life. Linda had her future taken away and so did we,’’ Mr Fein said.
Mrs Fein said she reported Linda missing after she was Linda. I just told by Robert she had disappeared from work.
Worry became panic when a search of the Pacific Fair car park failed to find Linda’s car.
In 2010 Mrs Fein spoke of her frustration in dealing with police when she reported her missing in 1983.
“I knew my daughter well. Linda was very responsible and wouldn’t just disappear. It was totally out of character,’’ she said.
“(But) we had to wait 24 hours before Linda could be listed as missing.’’
Years later a detective involved in the investigation also told of frustration.
Back in the 1980s, Bob Pease had been a detective sergeant with the homicide squad.
By the time of an interview with the Bulletin in 2002 he was an inspector. He recalled the investigation in minute detail and said it was fair to de-
ALL THAT TIME AFTER LINDA DIED, I DIDN’T SLEEP EXCEPT FOR ABOUT FOUR HOURS A NIGHT. I’D JUST LIE IN THE DARK AND THINK OF THE WHY, THE WHO AND THE HOW