Linda Jane
Roberts
This case was
most bizarre, not only for the circumstances of what happened to poor Linda.
This site was
harassed by the Queensland Police for publicising the details pertaining
to Linda Roberts disappearance, despite the fact most of the material had
come from a MEDIA RELEASE on their own site.
QUEENSLAND
POLICE MEDIA RELEASE
http://www.police.qld.gov.au/qps/info/media/aug01/mp_rob.htm
Concerns
for missing woman
August
21, 2001
Police are
concerned for the safety and well-being of Linda Jane Roberts.
Linda, 27,
was reported missing on Sunday 19th August after failing to meet friends
as arranged on Sunday morning and in the afternoon. She failed to arrive
at work at Eagle Farm today.
She was
last seen at 11pm on Saturday night at a friend’s house in Holland Park.
She left there and was intending to travel home about five kilometres away.
Her car, a silver Nissan Pulsar, was found today at Wishart Shopping Village
on Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Road with personal property still inside.
Family and
friends believe this is out of character for Miss Roberts who is normally
very reliable. Miss Roberts is described as 175cm, with a slim build and
fair complexion, brown eyes and auburn hair. She was last seen wearing
a red top with thin straps and blue jeans.
For further
information contact Detective John Pointing on 0419 700 765.
Issued by
Kirsten Roos - 3364 6668
Media and
Public Relations Branch
Phone:
1800 333 000
Isn't a
media release meant for the media?
I am a part
of the media. I have had a Press Pass saying so for at least six years.
So why did
they get so excited when I published it?
Similar material
was publicly available in Queensland Newspapers and on all Brisbane television
channels.
I - as webmaster
of this site - was never telephoned or emailed about this case.
On the 6th
September, my partner Chris was phoned (on his private mobile phone - where
did they get the number from? It is not publicly available anywhere)
by the Detective in charge of the Roberts case; John Pointing.
Twenty minutes
later he receive another call by a Queensland Policewoman who did not identify
her role - but we realised she was either the webmaster of the site or
the person responsible for the media releases - Kirsten Roos.
She made it
quite clear that we had stolen the Roberts photo off their website, and
there was more material we had 'stolen' from their site, which we naturally
denied and asked for the urls of the pages they claimed the stolen material
was on. No url's were given.
Other than
the media release and photo (which was included in the media release) there
was nothing from their site on ours. She demanded we remove the information
immediately and claimed we had 'stolen' photographs off their website and
were breaking the law as the Roberts photo had not been released anywhere
else.
I was forced
to put this up onsite under the heading :
Have you seen
Linda Jane Roberts?
Photo removed by request of Queensland
Police
6th Sept 2001
|
Really helpful
isn't it?
Which makes
us look really stupid!
The following
day I found the identical photograph in the newspaper.
The Police
had told us quite emphatically the photograph had not appeared in any newspaper,
and yet there it was from 2 days earlier!
It was the
Newspaper photo that was continually shown on TV!
We rang and
got permission to use it - apparently the family had freely given it to
the paper and other media "to
publicise Linda's disappearance and help identify her."
So we put the
photo back and changed the wording of the media release.
What happened
to Linda?
Linda, 27,
was reported missing on Sunday 19th August after not meeting friends as
arranged on Sunday morning and afternoon. She did not arrive at work at
Eagle Farm on Monday.
She was last
seen at a friend's house, in Brisbane (Holland Park) at 11pm on Saturday
night Holland Park. She left with the intent to travel home - only
5 kilometres away in her car, a silver Nissan Pulsar. The car was later
found at Wishart Shopping Village on Tuesday 21st August, with personal
property still inside.
As reported
by the media; family and friends believe the behaviour and disappearance
"is
out of character for Miss Roberts."
She is 175cm,
with slim build and fair complexion, auburn hair and brown eyes. She was
last seen wearing a red top with thin straps and blue jeans.
Her father
appeared on National Nine News Tuesday 21st August appealing for information.
Information
Sources: Queensland
Police Service (Media Release, August 21, 2001)
Channel 9
News Tuesday 21st August 2001.
Photo Source:
The Courier-Mail, Queensland.
Not long after
her watch was found in a Brisbane Dam.
Her body was
found in November.
Linda's friends
(whom she had dinner with) were convicted of her murder.
UPDATE: AUGUST
2002
Woman's blood
in house of accused | The
Courier Mail 10 August 02 by Jasmin Lill
The blood of
a murder victim was found at the house of her accused killers who claim
she left after watching a video with them, a court was told yesterday.
Student Sven
Huebner, 32, and office administrator Amy Louise Maher, 21, have been charged
with the murder of Brisbane receptionist Linda Roberts, 27.
Roberts disappeared
in August last year after she had dinner and watched a video with the accused.
The dead woman's
silver Nissan Pulsar was found two days later in the Wishart Shopping Centre
carpark, and some of her jewellery was found in Tingalpa Reservoir last
October. Her body was found a month later in bushland.
Huebner and
Maher were arrested and charged with the murder in January, prompting a
woman to come forward to complain to police about an incident which allegedly
involved the couple 18 months previously.
The accused
pair were then charged additionally with torture, assault and deprivation
of liberty of the second woman at Alexandra Hills in May, 2000.
The couple's
lawyer, Brendan Ryan, yesterday said in the Brisbane Magistrate's Court
that the Crown would allege that both women were taken to bushland on Brisbane's
southside.
But he would
ultimately argue that the pair had no case to answer in relation to Roberts'
murder and that the hearing of the case together with the other charges
may prejudice his clients, he said.
Crown prosecutor
Scott Smith said the defendants were the last to see Roberts alive after
she had gone to the house they were minding to watch the video Dragonheart.
Roberts' blood
was later found in the house, Mr Smith said.
He said Huebner
told police he and Roberts had been having a "play wrestle" before she
fell to the ground with blood on her face.
On Monday,
Magistrate Michael Halliday will deliver his decision on an application
to have the murder and other charges heard separately.
