‘I won’t give up on my sister’ – How a hat could hold secret to missing girls, four & 11, who vanished at football match
THE small handmade clay ashtray in her spare bedroom isn’t much to look at – but for Suzie Ratcliffe it’s one of her most precious possessions.
Her sister Joanne had made it at school for her parents when she was little yet for Suzie, now 49, its significance is bittersweet.
That’s because 50 years ago, 11-year-old Joanne went missing from a football match, along with a four-year-old girl called Kirste Gordon, and they were never seen again.
For Suzie, her sister’s disappearance is all the more heartbreaking because she was born 14 months after Joanne disappeared, so she never met her.
Vanished into thin air
Suzie’s family’s nightmare began on 25 August 1973 when Joanne went to a local football match with her parents, Kathleen and Les, and her older brother.
There, they bumped into another local family, four-year-old Kirste, who was there with her grandmother.
Towards the end of the match, Kirste needed the toilet and Joanne offered to take her.
She’d taken Kirste to the toilet earlier in the game, so her parents agreed, providing they came straight back.
But ten minutes later, they hadn’t returned and Joanne’s parents knew something was wrong.
After a frantic search of the ground and unable to find the girls, they raised the alarm with security and called the police.
But the pair had simply vanished into thin air.
‘Every parent’s worst nightmare’
From the outset, Suzie’s family and the police believed the girls were abducted.
“It’s every parent’s worst nightmare, their whole world was torn apart in minutes,” says Suzie.
“Joanne was a really responsible, protective girl, and when she’d taken Kirste to the toilet before, our parents had told her never to leave Kirste’s side.
“I truly believe she didn’t, and the girls were taken together.”
Police launched a search and both a witness at the football ground and a 13-year-old boy, Tony Kilmartin, said they’d seen a man wearing a hat carrying a little girl out of the stadium.
An older girl was following, she was distressed, tugging at his arm and crying.
He was able to give the police a strong enough description to do an identikit sketch.
“I think that boy saw Joanne desperately trying to stop someone from abducting Kirste,” Suzie explains.
The trail went cold
His description matched that of a couple more witnesses who told police they’d also seen a man carrying a little girl over a footbridge away from the football ground, with an older girl who was very distressed beside him.
My parents were never the same… Dad searched the streets every night for years afterwards.”
Suzie Ratcliffe, Joanne's sister
Tragically, after those sightings that day, the trail went cold.
“My parents were never the same. Dad searched the streets of our hometown of Adelaide, South Australia, every night for years afterwards, looking for Joanne,” Suzie says.
“As a toddler, I’d often ask my parents who the girl was in the photo with them on the mantelpiece.
“Mum explained a bad man had taken her. I desperately wanted her to come home, so she could play with me.
“At night, I’d hear my parents crying in their bedroom.”
‘Mum left the porch light on every night’
During the initial investigation, police interviewed local known sex offenders, believing the man who abducted the girls from Adelaide Oval was likely a paedophile.
“They had several suspects in mind, but it never came to anything,” says Suzie.
“Yet for years, Mum and Dad hoped Joanne would come home, Mum left the porch light on every night in case.”
Suzie now believes that the man who abducted the girls actually only intended to take Kirste, but because Joanne was so determined not to leave Kirste’s side, her fate was sealed too.
A hard acceptance
Sadly Suzie’s dad died in 1981, eight years after the girls went missing.
She explains: “By the time he passed, my parents had accepted it was unlikely Joanne was still alive.
“It was the not knowing where the girls were that kept them in limbo.
“Mum often said that she no longer wanted to know what had happened to them, or even that she needed justice, but that she just wanted us to be able to bury them with the respect and love they deserved.”
Mysterious underground bunker
Finally in 2014, a $1 million reward was put up for information.
That same year police received a tip-off and began searching a large property in Yatina, SA, where there were two wells.
The property had belonged to known paedophile Stanley Arthur Hart.
Although Hart had died in 1999 his family confirmed he supported one of the teams who’d been playing the football match that day and that he rarely missed any games.
It was also discovered that Hart’s childhood home was just a few miles from the football ground and had an underground bunker, which had been filled in since the girls disappeared.
Yet unfortunately, police found no evidence of the girls at either property.
Hart’s hat, however, has been recovered since and given to police in case it is significant in the investigation.
“It’s a very similar hat to the one in the identikit photo,” explains Suzie.
“There have been other persons of interest, but I believe Hart is the most likely suspect, his description closely matches the identikit sketch, right down to the hat and it was likely he’d been at the match that day.”
HOW IT ALL UNFOLDED - A TIMELINE
- August 25, 1973: Joanne goes to football match with her brother and parents
- 3.45pm: Joanne takes four-year-old Kirste Gordon to the toilet, and witness Tony Kilmartin saw a man wearing a hat picking up Kirste and Joanne crying
- Approx 5pm: The girls and the man are last seen by a witness crossing a bridge leading away from the football ground
- 1981: Suzie’s dad dies
- 2014: Stanley Arthur Hart’s properties are searched
- 2019: Suzie’s mum dies
- 2020: Suzie’s brother dies
- August 25, 2023: Candlelit vigil to mark 50 year’s since the girls disappeared held at the football ground.
Hope… and heartbreak
With each potential new lead comes fresh hope and heartbreak.
“Every time the phone rings, you’re wondering, is this it?” says Suzie.
Determined to push the investigation, Suzie has done her own detective work too.
“I really started looking into the case after having my own daughter, and fully understanding the unimaginable pain my parents had suffered, I wanted to find out what happened to Joanne for Mum,” she says.
Further family tragedy
Tragically, Suzie’s mum passed away in 2019 and her brother in 2020. “I’ve lost all my family now,” she says.
“I hoped to have answers for Mum before she passed, but devastatingly, that hasn’t happened.”
“I hope before my time’s up, I can bring the girls home and lay them to rest.”
Suzie Ratcliffe
In 2022, Suzie herself was diagnosed with breast cancer, but thankfully, after chemo, she’s recovering well.
“I hope before my time’s up, I can bring the girls home and lay them to rest,” she says.
Determined to keep the case in the public eye Joanne has set up a group called Leave a Light On Inc to share Joanne and Kirste’s story and those of other families of missing persons, so their loved ones aren’t forgotten.
Suzie adds: “When a family member goes missing, you’re living in limbo every day – You never have closure.”
“So while there’s breath in my lungs, I won’t give up looking for my sister.”