The Wallman family’s lives changed forever when their 14-year-old daughter, Marilyn, vanished without a trace in March, 1972.
Rex Wallman and his brother, David, were the last to ever see their big sister alive.
The boys were aged nine and 11 at the time, but the feeling of loss is as raw today as it was over four decades ago when Marilyn vanished from the Mackay suburb of Eimeo, Queensland.
The brothers were walking to school with their sister just 10 minutes ahead of them. But they knew something had gone horribly wrong when they came across her bike and half-opened school bag on the side of the road.
As they frantically searched for her, the brothers heard sounds coming from the nearby cane fields.
When Rex and David Wallman arrived on the scene just minutes after their sister Marilyn disappeared they found her belongings strewn across the grass and her bicycle with its wheel still spinning
David rode his bike back to alert their parents after they were unable to find Marilyn, while Rex stayed to search.
‘I stayed on the roadside and I remember hearing noises from far away in the cane paddock, but when we all went to search we couldn’t find anything,’ he told ABC News.
Marilyn’s disappearance is Queensland’s longest child abduction cold case.
The discovery of bone fragments from her skull were found at a rubbish tip in 2015, confirming the families worst fear that the teenager had been murdered.
The trauma of that day is still fresh in Rex’s mind.
‘It was pretty traumatic … it’s like it just happened yesterday,’ he said.
An aerial view of the manhunt for missing 14-year-old Marilyn Wallman and her abductor near Mackay 44 years ago when the schoolgirl vanished while riding her bike down a country lane to the youth hall
Mackay detectives are seeking information in relation to a two-tone aqua and white HD or HR model Holden sedan (pictured), the same car determined to be of interest to police in 1972
On the day of Marilyn’s disappearance a two-tone blue 1972 Holden sedan was seen on the same road. Detective Senior Constable Cindy Searle said the car remains a ‘significant’ part of the investigation.
A number of people have came forward over the years with information about cars of the same make and model.
‘That is useful to us,’ he said.
Police still want to speak to anyone with information regarding the person likely to have been using the vehicle on the morning of March 21, 1972 in the area of Wallmans Road, Eimeo and in the area of Mirani-Mt Ossa Road.
In 2016, detectives from Mackay released images of the 14-year-old’s wristwatch – a brand called Felicia, and the Holden sedan they believed was linked to her disappearance in the hope of sparking someone’s memory.
Officers also conducted a search of the ground where the skull was located in 1974 at Mt Martin, 42km from where Marilyn was last seen.
The disappearance has had a profound impact on the small community who still remember her today.
This year Marilyn would have been 60 years old and family and friends gathered to celebrate her would-be birthday.
Her classmates and friends have reunited every year to honour her memory, sharing stories and wondering what may have been.
One friend, Trudy Voltz, said it was hard to explain the emotions involved and that they all often wonder what Marilyn would have been like today had she lived.
Kay Jenner said no closure would ever be had until they were able to find out what happened to their friend.
‘We have a common bond in that our classmate went missing and we still don’t know what happened,’ she told ABC News.
Police still believe their is someone within the community who knows what happened to Marilyn.
Police have released photographs of a car and a wristwatch in the latest twist to the cold case of schoolgirl Marilyn Wallman (pictured), who vanished riding her bike 44 years ago through cane fields with her brothers
Schoolgirl Marilyn Wallman was wearing this Felicia brand wrist watch when she was snatched from her bike and dragged into the cane fields near Mackay, Queensland on March 21, 1972 and never seen again
Rex Wallman was nine when his sister disappeared and later said he had heard her voice cry out from the sugar cane, but tread marks along a creek bed were trampled over by searchers in the massive hunt for Marilyn
Mrs Wallman later noted that both her sons were deeply affected afterwards, particularly Rex who was grilled by police about what he heard in the cane, asking him, ‘Are you sure you’re not telling lies?’.
Daphne and John Wallman continued to search for their daughter, going as far as Western Australia after people contacted them with possible sightings of Marilyn.
Rex stated that he won’t give up on finding his sister’s killer ‘until I die’.
The Queensland Government is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to Marilyn’s killer.
Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.