Kristal Walker was just 17 years old when she discovered something terrible had happened to her as a child.
She was sitting on the porch of her Adelaide home when a relative blurted out the admission in 2006.
The now 33-year-old spent years probing for more information, turning to other family members when her questions were repeatedly dodged.
But no one wanted to tell her the family secret.
Perth woman Kristal Walker (pictured) has spent the last 15 years searching for answers about her childhood
It wasn’t until 11 years later, in 2017, that Kristal found out the truth through Freedom of Information documents.
Photos released by the Department of Family and Community services, now Family and Community Services, showed Kristal at 22-months-old beaten so savagely her blackened eyes were swollen shut.
The images were taken inside Maitland Hospital, in NSW, in March 1989, just a short way away from Kristal’s then home.
‘I was bashed as a baby and almost killed, I was inches away from death,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I don’t know how someone could do that to a child.
‘They might have killed me.’
Doctors reports obtained by Daily Mail Australia concluded her injuries had been inflicted by an adult.
Authorities were unable to ascertain who committed the vile attack and, to this day, no one has been charged.
FOI documents unearthed horrific images of Kristal aged 22 months brutally bashed with blackened eyes in Maitland Hospital
The heartbreaking images show bruising around the Kristal’s neck from the despicable attack
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Kristal’s mother or her mother’s then boyfriend committed the attack.
Hospital records indicated Kristal was too distraught that night for doctors complete a full physical examination.
Shortly afterwards Kristal and her family moved to Victoria.
The NSW department handed her case to its Victorian counterpart, but communication between the agency and the family gradually dropped out.
When the family moved to South Australia a few years later, her case was not passed on and eventually became forgotten.
Kristal believes her case fell through cracks in the system.
Kristal pictured with black eyes in Maitland Hospital
‘I would have been better off as a ward of the state,’ she said.
Instability and unhappiness at home saw Kristal drop out of school at 16 and leave home to move to Sydney, before returning back to SA years later.
In 2012, she left Adelaide with only a backpack to start a new life Perth, where she met her fiance Michael Kurgan, and became the proud step mother of his 13-year-old daughter Emma.
While the move to Western Australia has brought calm and happiness to her life, unanswered questions remain about her childhood.
She is certain family members or other members of community knew more about what happened and is pleading with them to come forward.
‘It is sad that people were alive at the time and wouldn’t say anything.’
Kristal moved to Perth in 2012 and met her fiance Michael Kurgan, 43 (pictured right). They plan to marry later this year
Kristal is now the proud step mother of 13-year-old Emma Kurgan (pictured together)
‘I’m sure there is someone out there that knows who I am but doesn’t know where I disappeared too.’
‘Someone has to be held accountable.’
She hopes speaking out will encourage those who know about incidents of child abuse and domestic violence to report it to authorities.
‘People don’t talk about child abuse and it’s not okay to sit on it and hide it.’
‘Evil is harming children and Australians need to know.’
‘If you see you something say something. It is as simple as that.’