A new eight-part Radio 4 podcast series sees BBC News correspondent Jon Kay investigating the story of three year-old Cheryl Grimmer who disappeared from an Australian beach in 1970.
Fairy Meadow is a crime story, a case that has had devastating consequences for a family still searching for answers and an illuminating piece of social history.
The Grimmer family came from Bristol and were part of a wave of migration from the UK to Australia in the 60s and 70s, nicknamed the ‘ten pound poms’. But their dream of a new life was shattered by the kidnapping of their daughter Cheryl from Fairy Meadow beach.
Jon Kay has been following the story since 2016, when the police came across a confession made a year after Cheryl went missing, by a man they code-named Mercury Mercury – a court order prevents him from being named.
As the series unfolds, we hear from a policeman who searched for the three year-old back in 1970, as well as the two officers who reopened the files, the people who searched for Cheryl when she first disappeared, potential witnesses and the family left behind, in attempt to uncover the truth.
Host Jon Kay, says: “I first heard about the Cheryl Grimmer case when I was covering the disappearance of Madeleine McCann for BBC News. In some ways, the cases are hauntingly similar. I think anyone who’s ever lost sight of a child will know that heart-stopping feeling when you suddenly can’t see them – even if it’s only for a few seconds. But what if that feeling goes on forever?
“When I was a kid, my baby brother was taken by a stranger. Thankfully, he was found safe and sound a short time later, but I’ve always wondered what happens to a family when there is no conclusion. Over the five years that I’ve been investigating the Cheryl Grimmer case in the UK and Australia, I’ve been amazed by the by the twists and turns this story has taken. And it’s not over yet.”
Offering new insight into this tragedy is Cheryl’s oldest brother Ricki, who was looking after her when she went missing. He shares his quest for answers and his fight for justice as the series follows him to Australia and back, and the case swerves from breakthrough to heartbreak. In one poignant moment, Ricki returns to the changing rooms at Fairy Meadow where he last saw Cheryl, where the story begins.
Fairy Meadow examines the impact that a child going missing has on a family and a community, and the emotional toll felt across generations. It is also the story of the mysterious Mercury: did he take Cheryl? And if he didn’t, then who did?
Episodes one and two of Fairy Meadow are available on BBC Sounds from today, 12 January, with new episodes every Wednesday.
