Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
The Australian Women's Weekly|July 2024
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
SUSAN CHENERY
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?

When Colin McDonald came out as gay, his mother, Lucy, played him The Pretenders’ song, I’ll Stand by You. “She already knew,” he says. “She was telling me, ‘I don’t give a sh*t, you’re my baby’.” Colin cries when he hears that song now. It is a memory of a mother who is no longer here. Lucy disappeared from her house in Lismore, NSW, on Tuesday, April 30, 2002. Colin is speaking now, he says, because “I just want to give my mother a voice”.

On the Sunday, he and his boyfriend had returned from the Gold Coast to find 11 messages from Lucy on their answering machine. “I didn’t have a mobile at the time. She was saying, ‘Help, please pick up’. Someone was tapping on her windows and prank calling her.”

Colin, who was studying in Lismore, told her he would go and see her on Tuesday. But by then she was gone.

On the Monday a maintenance man heard her screams for help from across the road. Sometime between then and the next morning Lucy vanished, leaving her keys and wallet behind.

“She’d never go anywhere without her house keys and wallet,” Colin says. He insists Lucy wouldn’t have left the house on her own because she’d been suffering depression and anxiety attacks, not getting out of her pyjamas.

“I believe she left with someone she knew or trusted,” Colin tells The Weekly. “She was a very committed preschool teacher. If she went out with the girls and they all got on it, she was still at work at 7am. To this day I don’t understand what caused the depression, but something did. She was the most kind-hearted, beautiful, positive person.”

And Colin knows she would never, ever have left him or his sister. He had been born when Lucy was 14 years old. “We were so close. If she were to run away, she would have told us and said, ‘Don’t tell anyone’. She told us everything.”

Bu hikaye The Australian Women's Weekly dergisinin July 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye The Australian Women's Weekly dergisinin July 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
Hitting a nerve
The Australian Women's Weekly

Hitting a nerve

Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.

time-read
5 dak  |
July 2024
Take me to the river
The Australian Women's Weekly

Take me to the river

With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.

time-read
4 dak  |
July 2024
The last act
The Australian Women's Weekly

The last act

When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?

time-read
8 dak  |
July 2024
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
The Australian Women's Weekly

MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN

When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.

time-read
8 dak  |
July 2024
The wines and lines mums
The Australian Women's Weekly

The wines and lines mums

Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.

time-read
10 dak  |
July 2024
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
The Australian Women's Weekly

Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?

Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.

time-read
10+ dak  |
July 2024
Growing happiness
The Australian Women's Weekly

Growing happiness

Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy

time-read
8 dak  |
July 2024
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
The Australian Women's Weekly

"Thank God we make each other laugh"

A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:

time-read
7 dak  |
July 2024
Winter baking with apples and pears
The Australian Women's Weekly

Winter baking with apples and pears

Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.

time-read
10+ dak  |
July 2024
Budget dinner winners
The Australian Women's Weekly

Budget dinner winners

Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.

time-read
5 dak  |
July 2024