It was a sun-kissed spring morning in 1977, and a promising young nursing student was on her way to visit a friend at the nearby university.
Annette Louise Morgan never arrived.
She was brutally raped and murdered and her body dumped on a pile of rubble beside the oval at St Paul’s College at Sydney University.
The 18-year-old left behind a shattered family who never got closure, and as the 40th anniversary of her tragic death looms, no one has ever been brought to justice.
Forty years later the identity of her killer remains a mystery.
Witnesses were reluctant to come forward, crucial evidence was lost and the case quickly faded into the background with a $50,000 reward unclaimed.
Annette Morgan, 18, was raped, beaten and murdered on October 29, 1977
Annette was a well-liked young woman, popular at school and looking forward to a challenging new career.
She had attended Sydney University until just a few weeks before she died, then left her course to study radiology at the Royal Newcastle Hospital.
On Friday October 28, 1977, she caught the train to Sydney, and that evening she stayed at a friend’s place on Wigram Road, in the inner-city suburb of Glebe.
The next morning, the sun was shining, warm with the promise of summer just around the corner.
Annette left the house wearing a blue dress, light-coloured shirt and blue platform shoes, and strolled down a bustling Glebe Point Road and into the grounds of Sydney University to meet a male friend.
Instead she met the most horrific end. She was raped, strangled and beaten.
Between 8 and 9am the 18-year-old’s badly beaten body was discovered by a man on his way to the local pool.
Annette was laying on a pile of rubble beside the St Paul’s College oval, just metres from where morning sports were about to commence.
Detectives soon established she had died of a fractured skull and strangulation.
Police said at the time they believed the teenager was followed through the grounds of the university on that fateful morning
The state of her body showed the killer used nothing but his fists and hands as weapons.
Dozens of students were interviewed in the days following, including the son of former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.
‘There are about 180 young men in the college, but none of them saw or heard anything’, warden of St Paul’s at the time, Rev A P B Bennie, said in the aftermath of the murder.
Her body was found dumped on a pile of rubble beside the oval at St Paul’s College at Sydney University (file photo)
Annette Morgan is seen here at her sister’s wedding, before her life was tragically cut short
Former Detective Bill Duff worked on Annette’s case in the days following the murder.
Despite a colourful career chasing underworld figures and investigating gangland murders, Annette’s death is the one that still haunts him four decades on.
‘Even to this day I still have memories of it, the senselessness of the whole thing’, he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It still comes back to mind, I was on Glebe Point Road the other day and came past the end of Wigram Road, and it flashed back into my mind straight away.
Duff said his colleague, Detective Sergeant Don Worsley, was tormented by Annette’s unsolved murder ‘until the day he died’.
‘It will never, ever leave me, the thought of the whole thing it was awful,’ Duff added.
At the time, police released an image of a man seen on university grounds the morning Annette was killed.
The identitkit of a male suspect seen on the grounds of Sydney University on the morning of October 29, 1977
Former Detective Bill Duff, who worked on Annette’s case, said her murder still haunts him four decades on
He was described as being aged 20-25, with a slender build and dark complexion.
The man was said to be clean-shaven, well-spoken, and had shoulder-length brown hair.
Tormented by the brutal death of their daughter, Annette’s parents have never spoken publicly about the tragedy.
Daily Mail Australia has been told some, if not all, of the forensic evidence was lost in the years after Annette’s death.
‘Despite extensive investigations at the time, and over the years, police were not able to identify who was responsible for her murder’, the Homicide Squad’s Unsolved Homicide Team told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The investigation is currently under review.’
The 40th anniversary of Annette’s murder coincides with a tumultuous time at St Paul’s College, which has been marred by scandals, accusations of sexual assault being rife on campus, and revelations of hazing rituals.
St Paul’s College has been marred by scandals, accusations of sexual assault and horrific hazing rituals in the decades since Annette’s tragic death
Whilst it is not suggested that Annette Morgan’s case was directly linked to St Paul’s College or any student of the college at the time, earlier this year Daily Mail Australia uncovered explosive allegations of relentless ‘degrading’ taunts, and ‘institutionalised misogyny’ at Australia’s oldest college.
Photos emerged from inside the college’s notorious ‘bone room’, and several women, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have revealed the extent of the ‘slut shaming’ emanating from the elite college, which was founded in the 1850s and has a tainted history including giving awards to men accused of gang rape.
The college, which charges fees of more than $30,000 per year and has former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam as an alumni, announced a review into its ‘unacceptable’ culture in June.
Revelations forced the warden Ian Head to step down from his role, and a letter from the University praised Dr Head’s service to the college that spanned across three decades.
‘Ivan has made an outstanding contribution to the life of St Paul’s College … the council expresses its deep appreciation for his dedication, wisdom and care of the college community over the past 22 years,’ the letter said.
Nina Funnell, ambassador for End Rape On Campus Australia and former USyD staff member, said the culture at St Pauls has been an issues for decades.
‘For over 40 years students and survivors have been campaigning at Sydney University to raise the issue of rape on campus.
”For 40 years they have been ignored and silenced and the issue has been swept under the rug.
‘The Annette Morgan case galvanized students and activists in the 1970’s but as happens in these cases, students graduate and move on and as the case went cold, the issue fell off the agenda again.’