Leslie Larkin’s family desperately pleads to solve 40-year-old murder mystery

A photograph of Juanita Wotherspoon sitting on Leslie Larkin’s lap is one of the few surviving images of the siblings together.

Juanita treasures the faded photograph stuck to the glass of the small silver frame.

She was 10 years old when her sister was killed in a Queensland coastal town – a moment also frozen in time.

“I remember knowing it was really serious,” she said.

“I have very vivid memories of my mother being in absolute despair.”

As a child, Juanita was spared the horrific details of the 31-year-old’s death.

Four decades later, she is leading the search for answers.

Her mother Pat Lleiss, 93, has dementia and lives in a care home, and her other sister is also unwell.

“Not knowing for 40 years definitely took a toll, especially on my mom,” Juanita said.

Shocking crime

Lesley Larkin has only lived in Noosa Heads for about a year and a half after moving back to Queensland from Sydney.

On November 9, 1984, the yoga instructor was found naked and badly beaten in her Karila Avenue apartment by a neighbor.

She was hit on the head several times with a heavy blunt object.

A day later she died in the hospital.

The injuries to her face were so severe that Pat’s mother could not recognize her.

“Of course she didn’t want it to be her… I remember my mother saying she had to look at her feet and other parts of her body to identify her,” Juanita said.

paradise lost

Samia Goudie used to live in Noosa and became friends with Leslie in the months before her death.

“She definitely had a vibrant, vibrant energy, very bright eyes – just a beautiful young woman,” Ms Goudie said.

“It was really important for her to get into yoga, the gym and fitness, and that was something we shared.”

The murder of Leslie Larkin was one of the first major crimes to rock the tourist town.

It was a place where no one locked the doors.

“Everyone was completely naive and innocent, thinking, ‘We’re in heaven, we’re safe,'” Ms. Goody said.

She learned about Leslie’s death from a friend.

“He told me, ‘Something terrible happened, I heard they found Leslie and her head was smashed in,'” Ms Goody said.

“Mysterious” case

At the time of Leslie’s death, Ms Goudie had not been interviewed by police.

Detectives interviewed more than 150 people, including Leslie’s work colleagues, her ex-boyfriend Timothy Marlowe and her neighbor Michael Welsh.

Mr Welsh owned a restaurant and a coronial inquest in 1986 heard he had gone to Leslie’s flat to discuss a job opportunity on the night she was attacked.

He told police he returned a few hours later after finding the woman’s dog, Riff Raff, on the street.

He said the door was open and called for help after he found Leslie lying on the bed, semi-conscious, with serious head injuries.

The ABC contacted Mr Welsh, who still lives in the Noosa region, but he declined to be interviewed.

Renowned criminologist Xanthe Mallett said it was a mysterious case.

“When I first looked at it, all the usual things you look for were missing,” Ms Mallett said.

“Nothing was stolen, there was no sexual assault, there appears to be no breaking and entering… Leslie may even have been asleep at the time of the attack.

Race against time

Ms Mallett said despite the passage of time the case could still be resolved with the help of the public.

“In my experience, when someone commits such a violent act, they will share that information with someone,” the criminologist said.

“It’s incredibly rare to keep it to yourself.

“Loyalties change, so over time people may be afraid to come forward or be told not to for some reason, but 40 years later if they know something they can come forward and still help the police.”

A $250,000 reward remains offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.

ABC has contacted police for comment.

Ms Goudie said she hoped the family could finally have closure.

“I feel on the periphery and that has had a huge impact on me… let alone being around when it’s your sister or your daughter,” Ms Goudie said.

For Juanita, each passing year brings “a sense of fear,” but also hope.

“Could this be a year? Can the police call my mother and tell her that someone has finally been charged?” she said.