SUZIE RAT CLIFFE EXCLUSIVE - I'M NOT GIVING UP ON JOANNE'

SUZIE WILL NEVER STOP SEARCHING FOR HER BIG SISTER

- Ruth McCarthy 

When it comes to remembering lost loved ones, it’s often significant dates that linger in our memories the longest. For Suzie Ratcliffe, there’s one day etched in her mind she can never forget.

Fifty years ago, on August 25, Suzie’s older sister Joanne, then 11, was abducted from Adelaide Oval, along with four-year-old Kirste Gordon. They had gone to the toilet during a football game before vanishing without a trace.

Since then, a dark shadow has clouded every day for Suzie’s family. The tragedy has also become one of the most baffling missing persons cases in Australian history.

“We’re still searching for answers, but I’ve made it my mission to find them,” Suzie, 48, tells New Idea exclusively from her home in Mount Evelyn, Victoria. “Until then we exist in a living nightmare that’s shattered my family.”

Suzie is using the 50th anniversary to bring Joanne and Kirste’s disappearance into the public eye, as well as all missing persons cases.