It is almost 20 years since Revelle Balmain, disappeared on the streets of Sydney. Her family still don’t know what happened to the young model and dancer…
It took Suellen Simpson eight years to realise that her sister, Revelle Balmain, was never coming home. Throughout that time she continued to live in hope. Their mother, Jan, had accepted the stark reality only a few months after her 22-year-old daughter disappeared. Mother’s instinct told her she wouldn’t see Revelle again after she vanished one Saturday evening in 1994.
“But I never believed she was gone,” recalls Suellen.
“Then one night I was at a meeting at the Homicide Victims Support Group in Melbourne. There were about 15 people sitting round and I spoke to them about Revelle. I explained what I was doing to try and find her, the letters I was writing…but as I was driving home that night it hit me – I thought ‘she’s dead and I’m never going to see her again’. But it took eight years.”
The devastating realisation that Revelle was almost certainly dead didn’t stop Suellen searching for answers as to what happened to her sister. Almost 20 years on, Suellen and Jan are still waiting to uncover the truth.
They believe crucial opportunities to solve the young model’s disappearance were squandered in the first 48 hours after she vanished. And they say their experience is a warning to other families when a loved one goes missing.
“The first 48 hours after someone goes missing are the most crucial time. Revelle went missing on the Saturday night but police didn’t start looking for her until Monday morning,” says Suellen.
“In those first 48 hours every action the police take is critical – whom they speak to, where they look, what evidence they find. When there are delays, things get missed and years later, like us, you end up without answers.”
Revelle disappeared on Saturday 5th November 1994. An attractive and accomplished performer, at the time she went missing she was living in a share-house in Sydney. But she was only days away from moving to Japan to work as a dancer.
Unknown to her family, Revelle had been working for an escort agency to make ends meet. Around 7pm on the Saturday she went missing, Revelle went to a client’s home in the Kingsford, Sydney. She was never seen again.
“That was a hideous shock. She got involved with the wrong people,” says Jan.
“We understand she was doing that work for a short period of time and then she was off to Japan. She’d also started modelling. It was all happening for her but unfortunately she was with the wrong crowd and didn’t get away soon enough.”
Revelle’s shoes, wallet and keys were later found scattered around streets in Kingsford. Her last client was questioned by police but told them that after their appointment he dropped Revelle at a Sydney hotel around 7pm.
“Revelle was meeting me at 11 o’clock the next day for Sunday lunch – I was supposed to meet her at Newcastle train station. But she didn’t arrive and she wasn’t on the next train either,” says Jan.
“So I made a report to police that day – a mother knows when something is wrong.”
When Jan called Suellen and told her Revelle hadn’t arrived she initially thought her younger sister had simply slept in.
“But on Monday when Revelle’s items were found around the streets, everything fell apart,” she says.
But the nightmare was only just beginning for Revelle’s family.
Suellen is still angered by what she believes were missed opportunities to solve her sister’s disappearance.
In July this year she wrote to the NSW Police Minister asking for the current $250,000 reward for information to solve Revelle’s case to be raised to $1 million.
“By the time police did go and see Revelle’s last client he had cleaned his car, cleaned his home and washed his clothes and linen. The rubbish bins in the area had been emptied. He had scratches on his face and neck but there was never enough evidence,” says Suellen.
“That first 48 hours of the investigation saw so many fumbles where information and evidence that may have helped us find out what happened to Revelle wasn’t collected.”
Frustrated by a lack of action, Suellen and friends searched for Revelle. Suellen spoke to her sister’s friends and searched Sydney’s streets and beaches every weekend for months. Her search went on for years.
“I remember phoning the detective in charge and asking him where he’d looked, who he’d spoken to and he wouldn’t give me any information. Instead he told me I needed counselling,” says Suellen.
“Whenever we asked questions we were made to feel like criminals.”
Suellen says families need to be proactive when a loved one does go missing – especially in the first 48 hours.
“You need to get that person’s face on the TV news and in the newspapers so the community can report anything suspicious that may help. You also have to stand up and ask questions and make sure the police are doing everything they can,” she says.
Revelle’s heartbroken father, Ivor, died in December 2011 still not knowing where his daughter was. In May 1999 the Coroner’s Court ruled Revelle was likely to have been murdered but Jan and Suellen still want answers.
“You don’t give up hope. It’s around you all the time – that hope that something will happen, someone will come forward and say what happened,” says Jan.
“Because someone out there does know what happened to Revelle. They know the truth.”
*Anyone with information about Revelle Balmain’s disappearance can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. There is a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person/s responsible for Revelle’s death.
VIDEO: Have you seen Revelle Balmain?
