Qld: Troy James OMeara pleads guilty to cold case murder of Linda Reed

The husband of murdered Queensland woman Linda Reed has revealed his pain and anguish of not being able to become a father nearly four decades after her heinous killing.

Barely in their 20s and building their first home, Linda and Robert Reed had their whole lives to look forward to.

But in 1983 Robert’s beloved wife disappeared from her retail job at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, later being found dead in a secluded patch of state forest.

What became one of Queensland’s most notorious cold cases that plagued police and the Reed family for years finally ended on Monday when Linda’s killer, Troy James O’Meara, pleaded guilty to the heinous rape and murder committed more than three years ago.

He did not even know Linda and was only 17 when he abducted her from a shopping centre carpark and took her to secluded bushland before raping and killing her.

Brisbane Supreme Court was told O’Meara, now 54, had received a life sentence for murdering a second woman in 1985.

In a brief victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Reed said O’Meara had murdered his future children and his hopes of being a father.

“No one can possibly know the pain and anguish I have been through over the last 38 years,” his statement read.

“After Linda’s murder, as a sign of my love for Linda, I vowed never to have children with anybody else.”

Linda’s mother, Nancy Fein, said the family had struggled to adjust to Linda’s death and had been rocked with grief for years.

Linda’s father, Oskar, died before he could see justice.

Despite a large scale investigation and appeal for witnesses, detectives did not make a breakthrough until 2018 when O’Meara was arrested.

Police said improvements in forensic science were a key factor in reopening the case.

On Monday O’Meara, dressed in a blue striped shirt and supporting a long grey beard, pleaded guilty to one count each of rape and murder.

The court was told Linda disappeared after 1pm on December 13, 1983, while taking her lunch break from the Pacific Fair Shopping Centre.

Family members and colleagues became concerned when she did not return and a missing person’s report was filed.

Police found Linda’s partially clothed body three days later face down in a creek bed at Millaroo Drive in Helensvale, 30 minutes from the shopping centre.

Crown prosecutor Jodie Wooldridge said Linda’s arms had been bound behind her back with a bikini top and cord and she had been sexually assaulted.

She said Ms Reed was killed by “drowning, smothering, suffocation or strangulation” by O’Meara.

“He was responsible for Ms Reed’s state of undress … (and) had sexual intercourse with her without her consent,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“He forced her face into the mud of the creek bed with sufficient force she inhaled mud and debris into her lungs.”

She said witnesses had seen a young man of similar appearance to O’Meara around the Pacific Fair carpark that same day and he was seen hitchhiking from the area where Linda’s body was found.

DNA evidence taken from the scene was analysed in New Zealand in 2017 and was crucial in identifying O’Meara.

Despite the pleas of guilty, Ms Wooldridge said they did not indicate any remorse.

The court was told O’Meara received a life sentence for murdering a second woman, Vanessa O’Brien, in eerily similar circumstances in 1985.

Ms O’Brien, 22, was abducted by O’Meara from a Queensland shopping centre and taken to a remote location where he raped and killed her.

O’Meara’s defence lawyer said his client had completed educational courses while behind bars and had not been involved in violence since the 1990s.

The court was told O’Meara wanted to care for his 80-year-old mother, who was in a nursing home, and his cancer-stricken stepfather.

Justice Martin reserved his decision.

Outside court, the Reed family did not speak to media.

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