A cold-case murder victim suffered some “distressing incidents” before she was killed, and Queensland police believe her confidants could help solve the crime.

November 14, 2018

Distressing secrets shared by a Queensland woman just before she was murdered could hold the key to finding, after 34 years, the killer who fled her home, covered in blood.

Leslie Patricia Larkin was brutally attacked and left for dead at her Noosa Heads unit on November 9, 1984.

The 31-year-old yoga instructor died in hospital the day after a neighbour found her lying naked with severe head injuries in a bedroom.

“(It was) a very brutal attack, she was bludgeoned to death, there is no other way to put it,” Detective Inspector Dave Drinnen told reporters on Wednesday.

Ms Larkin’s front door was open but there were no signs of a struggle. Her family says she wasn’t sexually assaulted.

The crime scene was so bloody police believe the killer must also have been covered in it.

Det Insp Drinnen said new information, which he declined to detail, prompted cold case detectives to reopen the case in January.

Information provided to us is that Ms Larkin had experienced some distressing incidents in the weeks prior to her death, Det Insp Drinnen said.

“We believe Ms Larkin confided in the people closest to her about these incidents,” he said.

Detectives are now desperate to hear from those who were closest to Ms Larkin, and who might know details of incidents that marred Ms Larkin’s life before she was killed.

A reward of $250,000 remains on offer for information that leads to Ms Larkin’s killer.

Ms Larkin’s family hope they might finally get the answers they so desperately want.

“(Her mother) is an elderly lady  … she can’t really get closure. She doesn’t know what the reason is behind what has happened,” Det Insp Drinnen said.

Ms Larkin, who was a regular at Franks Gym in Noosa, also worked in local restaurants and at the time of her death, she was visiting restaurants in the area looking for a new job.

“She was energetic and full of life,” the detective said.

“She was certainly someone who was well-known in the community and her circle of friends, which is why we are appealing to those people out there that had contact with her in the two to three weeks prior to her death to come forward,” he said.

On the 30th anniversary of her death, Ms Larkin was remembered by her sister, Juanita Wotherspoon, as a vivacious and beautiful young woman with a great smile and gentle eyes.

“She did not deserve this. We still wait hoping that one day we will know who and why,” she told The Sunshine Coast Daily.