Animal Bones, No Breakthrough: Search in 1970, Cheryl Grimmer Abduction Ends Without Findings

Police and specialist cadaver-dog teams searching bushland near Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong, New South Wales, close to where three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer was abducted on January 12, 1970, have concluded a fresh operation without locating human remains.

confirming that bone fragments recovered at the site belong to an animal. Investigators from the Unsolved Homicide Unit targeted an area linked to historical leads referenced in past statements as they revisited the 55-year-old case that has periodically drawn renewed attention and rewards for information.

The latest sweep, carried out with dogs and ground teams, was prompted by new lines of inquiry and community tips, but despite extensive passes and test digs, it yielded no evidentiary breakthrough; authorities said the wider investigation remains active and appealed again for anyone with knowledge of what happened to Cheryl to contact Crime Stoppers.

The toddler’s disappearance from outside a beach shower block during a family outing sparked one of Australia’s most enduring missing-child inquiries, with previous developments including a 1971 confession later ruled inadmissible and a 2017 charge subsequently withdrawn, failing to produce a resolution.

With this week’s search now complete and the bone fragments ruled out, attention returns to long-running efforts to piece together movements and witnesses from the summer of 1970, amid continuing hopes that advances in forensics or new testimony could finally clarify the fate of the child whose case has haunted the Illawarra for more than half a century.

Sources: BBC News, The Canberra Times.