Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
$750,000 reward for leads on NSW ‘murder’
Detectives hope a $750,000 reward will lead to new information about the suspected murder of a NSW man almost nine years after he was last seen.
March 2, 2018
Police hope a hefty $750,000 reward will help solve the mystery of a NSW man who went missing nine years ago and is believed to have been murdered.
Andrew Stephen Russell walked out of a Bathurst home on Slim Street in 2009 to visit his family and has not been heard from or seen since.
On Friday, the NSW government bumped up the reward for information leading to the recovery of Mr Russell to $750,000.
NSW Police Superintendent Paul McDonald said someone or some people know exactly what happened to the 23-year-old.
“Those people now have 750,000 reasons to come forward and allow his family to lay him to rest with the dignity and respect Andrew deserves,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Despite extensive investigations, Mr Russell’s family are still searching for answers almost a decade after he disappeared.
In 2016, the NSW deputy coroner Harriet Grahame concluded that Mr Russell died in suspicious circumstances, even though his body had never been found.
Detectives believe he met with foul play and died shortly after he left the Bathurst home.
A man was acquitted of Mr Russell’s murder in May 2015 following a lengthy judge-alone trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
Tony Simmons had previously made admissions relating to Mr Russell’s death to undercover police officers during an elaborate charade, the deputy coroner said in her findings.
He later told police he was “only talking s*** and was acquitted.