Detectives at the centre of the Cheryl Grimmer 47-year-old cold case murder are trying to locate key witnesses believed to be living overseas, NSW Police say.
Late last month, officers attached to Strike Force Wessel charged a 63-year-old Melbourne man with the abduction and murder of three-year-old Cheryl at Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong.
In line with ongoing inquiries, Wollongong detectives are trying to locate a family that provided crucial statements to police at the beach on 12 January, 1970, the day Cheryl disappeared.
Peter William Aubrey Goodyear, then aged 37, his wife, Mavis, and daughters, Karen, aged six, and Jannette, aged five, were living at the Fairy Meadow Commonwealth Hostel at the time.
Mr Goodyear worked as a labourer at the John Lysaght Springhill metal works in the Illawarra before he moved his family to the ‘Biabi’ plantation on Kar Kar Island, Madang, Papua New Guinea in late 1970.
The Goodyears later returned home to England and were last believed to be living in Oxton in Nottinghamshire.
"We have been making inquiries with authorities in Britain in a bid to find Mr Goodyear, if he is still alive, to determine whether he can still assist our ongoing inquiries," Detective Sergeant, Damian Loone, said.
"To date, those efforts have not been successful.
"We are keen to hear from anyone, here or abroad, who can help us locate the Goodyears," Det. Sgt Loone added, "We will make the necessary arrangements to speak to them."
Anyone with information about Peter Goodyear and his family is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
