GOLD COAST, Australia — A double murderer who raped and killed a Gold Coast woman snatched from a shopping center almost 40 years ago will be eligible for parole in 2022.
Troy James O’Meara pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of Queensland to murdering and raping Linda Reed, who was never seen alive again in Pacific Fair shopping center at Broadbeach on December 13, 1983.
Ms. Reed was eating lunch in her car when O’Meara forced his way into the vehicle.
He made her drive to isolated bushland where she was raped, dragged from the car and her face forced into a dry creek bed where she was drowned or smothered to death.
Ms. Reed’s partly clothed and bound body was found three days later, on December 16, 1983. Her hands were tied behind her back with a cotton bikini top, with the post-mortem examination finding dirt and mud from her last breath in her lungs. O’Meara sat expressionless in the dock as the details of his crimes were outlined to the court.
Just 17 at the time of the killing, the now 54-year-old O’Meara appeared wearing thongs and a striped sheet with his gray hair tied in a ponytail.
O’Meara was prosecuted as an adult in line with legislation at the time of the murder.
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