Elizabeth and Michael Barber will never forget the moment, in March 1999, when police asked if they knew Caroline Reed Robertson.
Their precious 15-year-old daughter Rachel had been missing from their Melbourne home for nearly two weeks, and they had feared the worst.
But when detectives mentioned the name of their trusted family friend and babysitter, the Barbers allowed themselves a small sigh of relief.
“It gave us a glimmer of hope she was alive,” recalls Michael. “We thought that if she was with Caroline, then she would be OK, and maybe they had just run away or done something silly.”
What they were about to find out was that their 20-year-old family friend had brutally strangled their young daughter with a telephone cord and buried her in a shallow grave on her father’s farm…
Read more about Elizabeth and Michael’s story in this week’s issue of Woman’s Day, on sale Monday, August 5 2013.
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