RIPPLES FROM KILL TRAGEDY

GRIEVING husband Robert Reed’s words at an inquest into his wife’s death have haunted investigators for decades.

Linda Reed was abducted from the Pacific Fair car park as she took a lunch break from her department store sales job in the frantic Christmas rush on December 13, 1983. Whoever overpowered her that day took her car and drove her to an isolated area of bushland at Gaven.

Linda’s bound and gagged body was found three days later. Her car was nearby, with Christmas gifts she had bought still sitting inside.

Her death was a senseless and futile tragedy – and like all violent crime, the ripples of that tragedy spread and have continued to buffet those who loved her dearly.

In 2010 her father, Oskar Fein, told the Bulletin he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer and desperately wanted to know, before he went to his grave, that the killer had been found, arrested, convicted and locked away. Linda’s mother, Nancy Fein, told in 2016 how she still prayed to see justice done and that she too felt she was running out of time to realise that wish.

Linda’s killer did so much more than take her life that day in 1983. Whoever was responsible also destroyed the lives of her parents and her young husband, who later revealed his depths of despair at an inquest.

“I am destined to remain a bachelor. The vows I made were for Linda. The children we planned were Linda’s and mine. We had a five-year plan. Build our home and pay off the personal loan in five years and then start a family. I still cry myself to sleep sometimes,’’ he said.

The arrest and court appearance yesterday of a man charged with Linda Reed’s murder, nearly 35 years after her death, is a remarkable development in this cold case.

Of course, the accused man is entitled to the presumption of innocence and the Crown case will be tested in the courts.

The development however does offer a glimmer of hope to Linda’s grieving relatives and friends. It is not a matter of closure. There can be no end to the pain for the people who loved her and have never forgotten how she lit up their lives.

But they can take comfort in the knowledge that police have never forgotten either and that there might yet be justice.