❤️HER NAME IS KATHLEEN (KATIE) MARY O’SHEA❤️
She went for a drive with her eldest son. After that, everything is a mystery. No charges. No body. No legal outcomes.
Her name is Kathleen (Katie) O’Shea. She was only 44. Katie disappeared from Atherton, Queensland, on December 29 in 2005.
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Katie’s daughter Lily Parmenter has spent more than half her life not knowing who killed her mum.
Somewhere in the vast Atherton Tablelands in Queensland is her body and the evidence police need to charge Katie’s killer.
A Melbourne resident, Katie travelled to Ravenshoe for the birth of her first grandchild.
On the morning of her last day, Katie’s son was to drive her to Atherton where she planned to visit a hotel before seeing a friend in Mareeba.
Kate was reported missing two weeks later on January 13.
For the past 21 years, Lily has dedicated her life to bringing Katie home and holding her killer to account.
One of five children, Lily remembers a childhood full of love and kindness.
“My first memory of mum is when she would race me home from kindergarten so I could watch Care Bears and Transformers,” Lily says.
“We’d get on the tram and she’d get me home as quick as she could so could never miss the first few minutes of Care Bears.
“We were very close. She was your typical mum – she kind of embarrassed me a lot because she was very open about how much she loved her kids.
“She’d be like: ‘I’m so proud of you’ and I’d be a teenager saying ‘Oh God, go away from me’.”
Katie did her best to raise her children in comfort and safety, to give them everything they needed by selling plants, taking on menial jobs like cleaning and making her single parent pension go as far as possible.
“I remember mum stealing succulents from people’s gardens,” Lily explains.
“She’d replant them into little pots, she’d put them into old toys we didn’t play with anymore – even put them into these Italian high heel shoes she owned – and take them to Camberwell Market to sell.”
Christmas 2005 was to be an extra special moment for Katie – it was the countdown to her welcoming her first grandchild into the world in the new year.
It was also a time of great change for Lily. The then 19-year-old was was starting her career in hairdressing and looking forward to the freedom of adulthood and youth.
Getting time off for Christmas was almost impossible for the first-year apprentice and so she was unable to travel to the Sunshine State with her mum.
“My two brothers lived there and my sister was going to be there as well,” Lily says.
“She wanted us to come so we could be together as a family but myself and my other brother opted to stay down here.
“I regret that I couldn’t go – maybe if I had gone up there she’d still be alive.
“My sister says the last thing she saw of my mum was mum sitting in the passenger side with my brother and my mum waving at her.
“Then no one saw her after that.”
Police honed in on two suspects – Katie’s son Alan and convicted killer and rapist Francis Wark.
Wark murdered Hayley Dodd on July 29, 1999. The 17-year-old was walking along a road in Badgingarra, Western Australia, when he lured her into his vehicle. Within hours he killed Hayley and dumped her body. About 22 years later, Wark was convicted on a charge of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 years in jail. He will only get parole if he tells authorities when he hid her.
Wark is considered a suspect in Katie’s death because he raped and held a young woman captive in the area two years after Katie disappeared. Wark denies any involvement.
Meanwhile, Alan is the last person known to have seen Katie alive. The inquest into Katie’s death heard Alan took her to Atherton to play pool on the morning of December 29. He told others she went to stay with a friend in Mareeba. On January 11, another friend of Katie’s went to the Mareeba property to collect Katie but was told she never arrived.
Alan reported Katie missing on January 13.
A witness – who cannot be identified – said Alan confessed to killing Katie.
Alan refused to give evidence at the inquest.
It took a long time for Lily to come to terms with the idea that her brother may have murdered her mum.
She recalls his behaviour was strange, especially that he held onto her mobile and his moves to have police involvement delayed.
When a young person loses a parent or a sibling to violence, their entire trajectory can be irrevocably changed.
Lily recalls moments of being in ‘self-destruct mode’ and pushing loved ones away for fear they would die or disappear from her life.
“There are times I tend to really isolate myself – times when I feel like I should reach out and get some help, talk to a friend or something but I just do the opposite and retreat into myself.
“It’s because, in a way, I feel like I am going to lose them and I don’t deserve to anyone be there for me because I failed my mum.
“I carry a lot of guilt about not being able to find my mum.”
Lily knows someone close to Katie’s killer has information that could lead to an arrest.
“She was so kind,” Lily says. “She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“It’s distressing to know that someone is protecting a murderer – for whatever reason.
“Just get some backbone and come forward tell what you know.”
When I asked Lily what she missed most about her mum, she revealed it was the simplest of things.
“It might sound terrible but I really miss her cooking,” she explains.
“She took such great care of us and that was often seen in the food.
“She cooked everything from scratch – with love.
“I would happily walk over the top of anyone right now to have a bowl of her chicken soup.
“My favorite thing about my mum is just that I had her as my mum.
“She made a mark on everyone and she is very much missed.”
A $500,000 reward is available for anyone supplying information that leads to the conviction of Katie’s killer. If you know anything please contact Crime Stoppers.
KATHLEEN (KATIE) MARY O’SHEA❤️
* Listen to Katie’s story on the She Matters Podcast
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