Daughter of missing mum’s message to suspects
A few days after Christmas in 2005, Katie O’Shea was driven to a remote Queensland town by her son.
He and his son Alan O’Shea were eagerly awaiting the birth of their first grandchild.
But that day was the last day Katie was seen alive in Atherton, in the far north of the state.
It’s been two decades since the 44-year-old man disappeared from the rainforest-lined rural town about two hours’ drive south of Cairns. And his killer has yet to be brought to justice.
Speaking on the 20th anniversary of her mother’s disappearance, Lily Parmenter explained how it was a twenty-year torment; he wondered what had happened, he missed his mother’s smile, her warmth, and the way she always made him feel safe.
“I would like to convey a personal message to both people involved in this case,” he said.
“For the integrity of the ongoing investigation, I will not name you, but you know who you are.
“Our mother is missing and we are tired and broken of not knowing. Your silence is a betrayal and is tearing our family apart.”
“If you know anything, you should stop and cooperate with the police.
“We deserve answers. He deserves better, and you know what the right thing to do is. It’s just a question of whether you’re going to do the right thing.”
Days before her disappearance, Katie had boarded a flight from Melbourne with three bags full of baby items in her luggage.
The baby was born in January, and O’Shea’s half-sister Katie’s daughter Lily called to congratulate her. It was then that he realized his mother had not been seen since December 29th.
According to a 2014 investigation, Katie’s son told police he took his mother to the Ravenshoe bar that morning, where she bought a six-pack of Coopers Stout.
He then drove him to Atherton and left him in the middle of a street so he could walk into town while he finished his beer.
“Our mother is missing and we are tired and broken of not knowing. Your silence is a betrayal.”
Lily Parmenter
Katie told her son she was going to see a friend in nearby Mareeba, but after Atherton she would drive the rest of the way herself.
When O’Shea spoke to police that January, he said he didn’t think it was an unusual situation because his mother had said she wanted to play pool at the bar.
O’Shea had long been under the police’s eye as a suspicious person.
He refused to participate in police interviews and did not participate in the criminal investigation.
The findings show that he made this decision because he believed that the police were treating him as a suspicious person.
Police also had strong suspicions of convicted murderer Frank Wark, another man who knew O’Shea and was in the area at the time of Katie’s disappearance.
Wark was sentenced in 2021 for the manslaughter of teenager Hayley Dodd, who was last seen walking along a road in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region in July 1999.
He also pleaded guilty to rape, sexual assault and deprivation of liberty after holding a woman captive for six hours after capturing her on the Palmerton Highway in 2007.
O’Shea reported her mother’s disappearance to Atherton police on Jan. 13.
Speaking to this imprint in 2024, Lily Parmenter said: “It took my brother so long to report her missing. The critical period was already behind us, almost like a day or two had passed.”
Detective Senior Sergeant Brett Devine, who has been investigating the case since 2006, said on Tuesday police were still trying to find Katie’s killer.
“For the last 20 years, Christmas has been a reminder to the O’Shea family that their mother will not be there to celebrate with them,” the officer said.
“They don’t know why it’s not there or how it got lost; these are questions they live with every day.
“Someone in the community knows why Kathleen O’Shea went missing or has information that could help police investigate her disappearance and the Queensland government has offered a significant reward for this information.”
A $500,000 reward announced in 2024 is still on offer and anyone with information has been appealed by police to come forward.
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