Australia Australia - Belinda Peisley, 19, Katoomba, NSW, 16 Sep 1998

Belinda Piesley - Missing - Suspected Murder - Foul Play
September 26, 1998




NAME: Belinda Shirley PEISLEY
Date last Seen: Saturday 26th September 1998
Location Last Seen: Leaving Katoomba Hospital
Age Last Seen: 19 Years Old


Statistics
Date of Birth: 23 Aug 1979
Height (cm):170.0
Build:Slim
Hair Colour: Brown
Eye Colour: Blue/Grey
Complexion: Medium
Appearance: Caucasian



From the Police Website:

Nineteen-year-old Belinda Peisley was last sighted on 26 September 1998.
Officers from Blue Mountains Local Area Command established Strike Force Belonidae to investigate her disappearance.
“Police have identified a number of persons of interest and followed numerous lines of inquiry.
“Our investigations have revealed that Belinda received a considerable inheritance prior to her death,
and that as a result she had many people frequenting her residence.
“She had also developed a significant drug problem and had accumulated considerable debt.

“We believe she met with foul play but need more information from the public to put the pieces of the puzzle together and make a breakthrough,” Acting Superintendent Vellar said.

When Ms Peisley disappeared, she left behind two sons, who are now aged 16 and 14.

In the hope of receiving new information, the NSW State Government has today announced a reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance, and presumed murder, of Belinda Peisley.

Anyone with information that can assist investigators should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
(Edited to reflect updates on case)
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WEBSITES:
POLICE NSW - LINK to articles
Australian Missing Persons Register: Link...
Facebook - Remember Belinda Piesley: Link...

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Main Stream Media Time Line Links 2013


Source: Daily Telegraph


March, 2013

Peisley disappearance linked to break-ins
Sydney Morning Herald Read More...
The inquest, at Katoomba local court, heard that there had been a number of drug-related break-ins around the time of Ms Peisley's disappearance, in which property had been stolen from homes around Katoomba and then sold to pawnshops in western Sydney.
A number of these break-ins were allegedly undertaken by some of Ms Peisley's friends, most notably her former boyfriend Oliver Tipping and his friend Jeremy Douglas.

The inquest heard that, shortly after Ms Peisley disappeared, the woman who was part of the alleged break and enter racket, Joanne Thompson, had used identification cards belonging to Ms Peisley when selling the stolen goods to pawnshops.
"Oliver [Tipping] told me in a conversation that Joanne was using her [Belinda's] ID," a friend of the alleged robbers, Shane Heffernan, told the inquest.
A distinctive maroon Jaguar belonging to one of the men was also seen outside Ms Peisley's house around the time of her disappearance.
Mr Heffernan said this car belonged to Jeremy Douglas and had been obtained with "money from a break and enter".
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Belinda 'put over the cliff', inquest hears
Sydney Morning Herald. March 21 2013. Read More..
The inquest has heard that shortly after Ms Peisley disappeared, a man who had been staying at her home, Jeremy Douglas, stole her property and then told an acquaintance "don't even worry, she's not coming back any time soon".
Mr Douglas is a person of interest at the inquiry.



Person of interest: Jeremy Douglas. Photo: Shane Desiatnik SMH

Some time after Ms Peisley disappeared, Ms Fitler said Ms Wailes told her that the 19-year-old was "put off a cliff".
"I had the impression that she went off the cliff first and that they moved her," Ms Fitler's statement says. "I remember her house was trashed."

Ms Fitler was due to give evidence at the inquest on Thursday but she failed to attend.
The inquiry heard that when police attended her home she told them to "get stuffed".
Coroner Paul McMahon has issued a warrant for the woman's arrest.
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Missing mother mystery: Court hears 'she's not coming back any time soon'
SMH March 21 2013. Read more...
''Rumours were going around that someone was standing over Belinda. [It was] Jeremy Douglas, he pretty much had control of the house,'' she said.
Ms Thomson said that soon after the second robbery, Mr Douglas had told her ''not to worry about Belinda'' because she ''wasn't coming back any time soon'' and that she had ''been hurt''.
''Jeremy said not to even worry about it, she's gone. He knew he wasn't going to get into trouble for taking the property, there was nothing to worry about. Then he disappeared for a few days.''



Denial: Joanne Thomson. Photo: Shane Desiatnik. SMH

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April 2013

Missing woman dumped in bin, inquest hears
NINEMSN. April 11 2013. Read More...
A man, who can only be identified as Witness A for legal reasons, told the inquest on Wednesday that he had once shared a jail cell with Saxon Holdforth who had confessed to him that he'd killed Ms Peisley.
"He said he choked her and threw her to the ground, and came back a little while later and she was still breathing, so he got a boulder and dropped it on her skull," Witness A told the inquest at Parramatta Local Court via video link.
He said Holdforth - who was present during the proceedings - said he'd killed her because she "told the town his drugs were ****".
Ms Peisley had put up a struggle and tried to scratch his eyes out, the witness said.
He told the inquest Jeremy Douglas, an associate of Ms Peisley, also told him Holdforth said he'd thrown her body into a Coles bin, wrapped in a carpet.
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Friend cut up missing teen's ID cards
FID/SKY April 11th 2013. Read More...
The day after Blue Mountains teenager Belinda Peisley went missing, her best friend found her wallet and cut up her cards but never mentioned it to police, a Sydney inquest into her disappearance has heard.
She said she didn't tell police about it at the time, but cut up all of Ms Peisley's ID cards so her then-boyfriend Jeremy Douglas, a person of interest, couldn't use them.
The inquest has heard that Ms Peisley's circle of acquaintances were committing a series of home burglaries in the Katoomba area at the time and that her ID card was used after she disappeared to pawn stolen property.
Ms Wailes admitted that a few days before Ms Peisley went missing, she had helped Mr Douglas steal Ms Peisley's TV and other belongings and pawn them, and had lied to her friend about her involvement.

On Wednesday, a witness said he had overheard Ms Wailes say Mr Douglas's friend Saxon Holdforth, another person of interest, had made her and Mr Douglas dispose of Ms Peisley's body after he allegedly killed her.
'She said Saxon made her help bury the body - she kept saying he'd made them help,' the man, known as Witness D, said.




Missing for more than 13 years: Belinda Peisley, pictured with her two children. SMH

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Main Stream Time Line 2013

June 2013

Woman Off Cliff: Video Captures Cliff Murder​​
NEWSOXY June 24 2013. Read More...
Video taken from a surveillance camera may hold clues to the murder as it shows someone with the same identity matching one of the suspects, allegedly throwing someone off a cliff.
The handwritten note, tendered during the coronial inquest into Peisley’s death, was written by Keren Fittler, a young woman who started mixing with the same crowd as the 19-year-old shortly after she disappeared from Katoomba in 1998. This crowd included Jeremy Douglas, who once lived with Peisley but allegedly broke into her house shortly before she disappeared, and his friend Saxon Holdforth.
Fittler recalls hearing on a number of occasions that a woman named Bel” had been ”put over a cliff.”
“Some of the things I have heard over the years is that Jeremy, Saxon and Olly [Peisley's former boyfriend Oliver Tipping] took her in a car and bashed her and left her somewhere,” says the statement, written in December 2010. “After they’ve left her they’ve come back and got her body and done some things to her before or after she was dead and chucked her over the cliff.”


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Main Stream Media Time Line 2013


September 2013

Missing mother Belinda Peisley was most likely murdered, inquest told
Illawara Mercury September 25 2013. Read More...
An inquest into Ms Peisley's death was initiated and police began searching a large swath of bush land near Blackheath.

The inquest heard that a few days after her death, Ms Peisley's house was broken into by a number of her former friends and acquaintances, who later used her identification cards to sell items at a western Sydney pawn shop.
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Missing NSW mum's fate remains a mystery
AAP NEWS - SEPT 25 2013. Read More...
Almost 15 years to the day she disappeared, the fate of NSW woman Belinda Peisley looks likely to remain a mystery.
On the final day of a lengthy inquest into her death, Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon was told the 19-year-old mother was probably killed, but there was inconclusive evidence as to how she died or who did it.

Much of the inquest concentrated on whether Ms Peisley's best friend Heidi Wailes, Ms Wailes' then-boyfriend Jeremy Douglas and his mate Saxon Holdforth had direct involvement in, or knowledge of the circumstances, surrounding Ms Peisley's disappearance.

The court heard chilling allegations, including that Mr Holdforth told a fellow prisoner in 1999 that he choked Ms Peisley and smashed her skull with a rock, before dumping her body in a supermarket bin.
The inquest also heard Ms Wailes wrote a statement saying Mr Douglas told her he had killed Ms Peisley and buried her in a shallow grave in the Megalong Valley.
Another witness said Mr Douglas talked to her about putting someone "over a cliff".
All three have denied having any knowledge of Ms Peisley's disappearance.
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Missing NSW mum's fate remains a mystery
NINEMSN September 25 2013. Read More...
Counsel Assisting the Coroner, Philip Strickland, SC, told Glebe Coroners Court on Wednesday Ms Peisley almost certainly died shortly after she was last seen leaving Katoomba District Hospital in the NSW Blue Mountains on September 26, 1998.
"At the time she was last seen, she was ripe for making poor decisions which included associating with people who could have posed a danger to her," Mr Strickland said in his closing submissions.

But he ruled out suicide, a drug overdose or any kind of death by misadventure, noting Ms Peisley's body would have been found.
"The chances that she would just walk out of the Katoomba area, never to be heard of, and never to contact her family and her children are (also) so remote, your honour would discount it," Mr Strickland said.
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Pregnancy twist in case of missing mum
SKY NEWS September 25 2013. Read More...
The officer-in-charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Glenn Morfoot, told the inquest on Wednesday fresh investigations had confirmed Ms Peisley visited her doctor for a pregnancy test the day before she disappeared.
However, police obtained the result of the blood test which was negative, he said.

Det Sgt Morfoot said police had conducted fresh searches of the bushland behind the school to no avail.

Police were also unable to ascertain exactly where Ms Peisley was when she called her mother in a distressed state the night she was last seen.
Ms Peisley's family members are expected to address the court later on Wednesday.
The inquest continues before Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon.
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(From left) Belinda's son, Cody Peisley with his grandfather Mark Wearne, and Belinda's former partner William Moffett (white shirt) with their son Billy Moffett. Photo: Peter Rae (SMH)


No evidence to lay charges over mother's death
SMH SEPT 26 2013. Read More...
Following the revelation at Glebe Coroner's Court on Wednesday that charges will not be laid against two ''person's of interest'' suspected of involvement in Peisley's death, her family have opened up about the circumstances surrounding it.

''Just nine months before all of this, she was completely different,'' the young woman's former partner, Andrew Morfett, said. ''She was never into drugs before she met those people; she was just a bright, normal person.''
''Those people'' were the group of drug-addicted, damaged youths, Peisley fell in with after moving to the Blue Mountains.
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Trow Street Katoomba: Belinda's last residence. Photo: Supplied (SMH)


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DUE OCTOBER 2013

INQUEST FINDINGS:
Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon will hand down his findings on October 11.

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Main Stream Media Report

2nd October 2013

Blue Mountains Gazette. Read More...
No charges to be laid in Peisley death
Last Wednesday, counsel assisting the inquest, Phillip Strickland SC, said the evidence relating to the exact manner and cause of the young woman’s death was inconclusive, but that it did “point strongly to her death being the result of some sort of homicide or violence”.
The inquest received evidence from multiple witnesses suggesting that Ms Peisley had been killed and thrown off one of the Blue Mountains’ many cliff edges.
Speaking after the hearing, Ms Peisley’s aunt, Sharon Versace, said she was “very, very disappointed” that charges would not be laid.


11th October 2013

NINEMSM. Read More...
Belinda Peisley's death remains a mystery
... testimony given during the lengthy inquest "did raise considerable suspicion" that three people had some knowledge of or involvement in the teen's death, he said.
These were her best friend Heidi Wailes, Wailes' then-boyfriend Jeremy Douglas and his then-mate Saxon Holdforth, both of whom Mr MacMahon described as having a reputation for violence against women.
The coroner also recommended the NSW Police Force change its procedures so that where there is a high risk that a missing person has died in suspicious circumstances, the homicide squad be informed immediately of the circumstances.

"Someone will one day come forward and give enough truth for an investigation to go all the way, and Belinda will finally get the justice she deserves," Mr Wearne said.

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Main Stream Media Report

Updated: Friday 12th April 2013
News.Net Read More...
Facebook Threats Sent To Inquest Witnesses
A person of interest in the 1998 disappearance of Blue Mountains teenager Belinda Peisley has been threatening other witnesses on Facebook, a Sydney inquest has heard.

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Report Available to read -Click Link
Inquest into the Disappearance and Suspected Death of Belinda Shirley Peisley

Date of Finding: 11 October 2013

Coroner: Magistrate P. A. MacMahon
Deputy State Coroner

Representations: Mr P. Strickland SC and Mr R Ranken -
Counsel Assisting
Mr P. Saidi – Commissioner of Police.
Mr J. Lekkas – Stephen and Justin
Kondek.

Having found that it is unlikely that Belinda died as a consequence of a natural
cause process, misadventure or intentional self-harm I am satisfied that it is more
likely than not that her death was the consequence of the action of a third party.

Click to expand...

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Remembering Belinda today - 18 years Missing.

Rewards on offer for three unsolved Blue Mountains cases

A $100,000 reward is being offered for information about the disappearance of teenager Belinda Peisley in 1998.

Nineteen-year-old Belinda Peisley was last seen at her home on Trow Avenue, Katoomba, on September 26, 1998.

Who Killed Belinda Peisley? Uncovered : ABC iview
Who Killed Belinda Peisley? Uncovered
This 6-part series takes the viewer deeper into the events of Belinda Peisley's murder case through unique themed episodes that raise important questions ...


PEISLEY, Belinda Shirley - Findings - NSW Coroner's Court
www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/.../peisley,%20belinda%20shirley%20-%20findings....


Last night, there was an hour length show that primarily looked more in depth at some of the witness testimony at the inquest. You can find that on Iview on most recent shows, produced by the same people but seems a little separate to the above 6 part, 10 minute segments. Overall a few things stand out when all of the above material is watched and taken into account with Belinda's Coronial findings summary. I do know someone who is privy to more information in this case from attending these proceedings and knowing someone close to her. I would not be satisfied trying to guess what has happened here, given the information that has been publically released, and the amount of information that is not disclosed. One part of the show I found interesting was that BP's boyfiend at the time of her disappearance, came back and took her credit card and also her medicare card which she left on top of the fridge when she returned from being triaged at the hospital. The hospital is apparently her last verifiable sighting, and yet her neighbor who heard her smashing up the house said that the morning after she was apparently last sighted, he saw her walk out the front of her house with the boyfriend. He met a friend at the station that morning to go to the grand final in Sydney and said he spent the night at that mates house. The mate, says he did travel with him from Katoomba to Sydney but can never recollect a time when the boyfriend stayed at his house. The boyfriend then went on to take money from her account until the police questioned him about it and he confessed he felt entitled to use the card because she owed him money. Also in the coronial summary, two people refer to having talked to her boyfriend about her being pregnant, something he denies knowledge of, and medical records suggest that she was not at the time of her disappearance. If he stayed at her house that night and left to meet a friend at the station the next morning, then he and the neighbor are the last two people to have seen her. I wish I could see a transcript of the inquiry and how the police investigastion prior to it being referred to homicide was conducted. There is a repeated sentence throughout the program that I feel covers a thousand sins and that is that the initial police investigation was (actually I can;t remember the word) but inadequate. IMO

Just to add, HW visited her place the same day the neighbor claims he last saw her and found her bag and took her wallet. She visited cause she had heard about the altercation at Parke street the day before. Hell of a lot of drama in those last hours.

Interesting - Jeremy Douglas was quite busy at Katoomba court this week, another on the 28th.

Link to the above: Search NSW Court Lists | NSW Online Registry

With 2 pending hearings surely Jeremy Douglas will get locked up - hopefully!

Who Killed Belinda Peisley? Uncovered

ABC has done a 6 part documentary on Belinda. I found this while looking up another case. They seem to be 10 minute episodes so may be worth a look.

Removed - link didn't work

ETA found a link mentioning the digg that will take place in the search for Belinda Peisley

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/ns...cold-case-ng-d0fd72ae28910f8a57936235e53cf219

Police to dig up Belinda Peisley’s Katoomba home in bid to solve 20-year murder mystery

Police will begin digging underneath a Blue Mountains’ home on Monday in the grim hope of finding the remains of young mum-of-two Belinda Peisley, who is believed to have been murdered 20 years ago.

The Daily Telegraph understands police decided to excavate Ms Peisley’s Katoomba home after reviewing the case this year and re-interviewing several witnesses.

We’re for Sydney | Daily Telegraph

Police find items of interest

We’re for Sydney | Daily Telegraph