It was the murder that shocked the nation, but Anita Cobby’s memory still shines bright.
Kathryn Szyszka still vividly remembers the day that Detective Inspector Ian Kennedy arrived at her parents’ humble weatherboard home in Sydney’s outer western suburbs.
It was February 4, 1986, and the family hadn’t seen or heard from her big sister Anita Cobby for 48 hours.
She was always reliable, so when the 26-year-old didn’t return home on time, parents Grace and Garry Lynch knew something was amiss.
When Anita failed to show for her nursing shift at Sydney Hospital the next day, alarm bells started to ring.
“We’ve found the body of a young woman in a paddock at Prospect,” Detective Kennedy explained to the stunned family.
“I have a ring here that the young woman was wearing. Can you tell me if your daughter was wearing a ring like this?” he asked.
A 20-year-old Kathryn stepped forward and took the three-banded ring in her hand.
“Yes, Anita had one similar to this,” Kathryn answered, but she still wasn’t sure.
“It looked like her ring but it was as if it was dirty and tarnished,” recalls Kathryn, now 49.
“And he said to me very quietly, ‘That’s dried blood.’ I think then we knew it was going to be something fairly gruesome.”
It’s been 29 years since the battered, naked body of the loving nurse and beauty queen was found dumped in a western Sydney paddock.
On February 2, 1986, Anita finished dinner with two friends in central Sydney and caught a train to arrive at Blacktown Station about 10pm.
She’d usually call Garry for a lift, but that day the payphone wasn’t working and there were no taxis.
A long-time local, she decided to walk the 2km distance to the house she shared with her parents.
As she walked, a gang of five men pulled up beside her in a stolen HT Holden Kingswood. They dragged a kicking and screaming Anita into the car, stripped her and took turns repeatedly raping her.
Badly beaten, Anita was taken to a dimly lit paddock. The men dragged her body over a barbed wire fence, cut off her fingers as she tried to grab the knife from them, and slit her throat from ear to ear while she was still conscious.
The animalistic savagery of the murder inspired fear and outrage Australia-wide.
When the five men responsible – John Travers, Michael Murdoch, and the three Murphy brothers, Gary, Michael and Les – had their trial the following year, a mob of 300 gathered outside the court, crying out for capital punishment.
After calling the crime “one of the most, if not the most, horrifying physical and sexual assaults I’ve encountered in my 40 odd years associated with the law”, Justice Maxwell marked their papers, “never to be released.”
Anita’s heartbroken yet always stoic-faced parents, Garry and Grace, honoured Anita’s death each year on its anniversary with a small family get-together until they passed away in 2008 and 2013, respectively.
In their absence, Kathryn and the police who worked on the case have made it their mission to keep Anita’s memory alive.
On February 2, the first public memorial to Anita is scheduled at her grave site in Blacktown, having been organised by the Retired Police Association.
It’s a celebration of Anita’s life and a way to spread the message of zero tolerance towards violence against women.
“One of the things Garry Lynch asked me before he died was, ‘Please, don’t let Anita’s memory fade,’?” says retired Detective Garry Raymond, 64, who’s been one of the memorial’s driving forces.
Since the event was posted on the Facebook page of local newspaper theBlacktown Sun, more than 600 people posted their recollections of the crime.
Now mum to 14-year-old twins, Olivia and Cameron, Kathryn’s made sure her children know what happened to Aunty Anita.
Olivia often attends social gatherings at the Homicide Victims Support group set up by her grandparents.
She also accompanies Kathryn to Sydney Hospital where the family funds the Anita Cobby Nursing Scholarship, a leg-up for nurses to further their training.
As time has passed, Kathryn’s inconsolable rage and deep grief has been replaced with acceptance. She now takes pleasure in the memories.
She remembers a girl with an infectious laugh, who looked out for her; a role model who gave her advice and who’d always ask for one bite of her Paddle Pop, then eat the whole thing.
“I do feel close to her still to this day – it’s a nice feeling to think she’s still there looking down and protecting me and my family.”
Memorial details as follows:
The Anita Cobby memorial will be held on Monday, February 2 from 10am to 11.30am at the Guardian Funerals Chapel at the Pinegrove Memorial Park, Kington St, Minchinbury, Sydney. Morning tea will be served.
Instead of flowers, donations can be made to the 20th Man Fund to help disadvantaged youth.
