Cheryl Grimmer was last seen wearing a blue swimming costume. According to multiple reports, she ducked away from her 7-year-old brother Ricki Nash into the women's changing rooms just before disappearing; Ricki had been supervising his siblings at the time. An enormous search involving about 1,000 locals was conducted after her disappearance, but no trace of her was discovered.
The Grimmer family had emigrated from Bristol to Australia as Ten Pound Poms 18 months before the incident, seeking a new life that was tragically cut short. Fourteen months after Cheryl vanished, a 17-year-old boy confessed to kidnapping and killing her. The confessor, referred to by the alias Mercury in files because he was a minor, is now in his 70s.
I was supposed to keep her safe.
He was charged and held in custody, but the case was dropped in 2019 when the confession was ruled inadmissible on a technicality. Cheryl Grimmer's parents, Carole and Vince Grimmer, died without knowing what happened to their daughter. Their children—Ricki Nash, Paul Grimmer, and Stephen Grimmer—are now in their 60s and have pursued justice for her relentlessly.
According to Daily Mail - Home, Ricki Nash described the guilt he has carried for leaving Cheryl alone that day, intensified by the knowledge that the case was mismanaged, and said he has lived a life of hell due to this burden. The brothers continue their quest for closure, driven by a promise made to their mother. Ricki Nash promised his mother Carole on her deathbed in 2011 that he and his siblings would never stop seeking justice for Cheryl.
The guilt I have carried for leaving Cheryl alone that day has only been intensified by the knowledge that the case was mismanaged. That burden is something I've lived with for decades and the failures that followed made it far heavier than it ever should have been. I've lived a life of hell.
Unresolved questions persist, including what new evidence or reasoning prompted the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the decision to drop charges last month. Additionally, the whereabouts of Cheryl Grimmer's body and the exact circumstances of her fate after the kidnapping remain unknown, as does the real identity and current status of the confessor known as Mercury. Why it took over 50 years for the case to see significant legal progress after the initial confession also remains unclear, highlighting the prolonged struggle for answers in this enduring cold case.