Helen Harrison

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Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised.

My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

Today I'm discussing the case of Helen Harrison. For the last four weeks, I covered three-year-old William Tyrrell's disappearance and a man named Frank Abbott. He was heavily investigated in William's case and discussed extensively at the inquest. That's where we learned about 17-year-old Helen Harrison. On March 16th, 1968, Helen was two weeks from her 18th birthday. She worked at a general store in Pitt Town, New South Wales, Australia, and cycled to and from work. That day, Helen finished her work and headed home but never arrived. In the years that followed, multiple people came forward claiming they knew what happened to Helen. Some even described conversations in which a man allegedly confessed to killing her. That man was Frank Abbott.

You guys know I couldn't leave Helen behind. So this is the case of Helen Harrison.

Saturday, March 16th, 1968 started like any other weekend for 17-year-old Helen Mary Harrison. She got up that morning and headed to her job at Miller's General Store in Pitttown. It's a suburb of Sydney about an hour north of the New South Wales capital. Helen was the typical eldest daughter, described as incredibly responsible. She'd worked at Miller's for about two years, biking about three to four miles from home in nearby Marelia, where her father drove tractors, raised cattle, and grew mushrooms.

Helen biked to and from every shift. This happened so often that people along her route said that they often heard her singing before they saw her. This absolutely fits her family and friends' description of her as outgoing. And at this point Helen was only two weeks from turning 18 on March 30th. Her mother Mary told police that Helen had planned to buy cake mix at work so she could bake it later that afternoon. But somewhere between leaving work and arriving at home, Helen went missing. Peter, the older of Helen's two younger brothers, was only 14 when she disappeared. He told journalist Dan Box on the podcast Witness William Tyrrell that their parents immediately knew that something was wrong when Helen was late coming home from work. On top of that, there was a big storm coming in that afternoon that only added to their fear.

Knowing that Helen is incredibly responsible and dependable, this family goes immediately to the police. But, like we've seen in way too many cases, Peter says that the police basically weren't concerned. They say that maybe Helen went to stay somewhere else or basically ran away. Helen's father Claude Harrison fights back. He tells them Helen is happy at home, and there's no reason that she would run away. But, the police basically tell him to just give it some time. Unsatisfied with that answer, Claude begins his own search by late afternoon. Peter says he stayed out all night. In the next few days, Helen's family basically just drives around asking people if they've seen her. And a few people do report seeing her on Saturday. Co-workers confirm that she did finish her shift at 12:45 p.m. The Windsor and Richmond Gazette report several sightings of Helen cycling homeward on Boundary Road between 1 and 115 that afternoon.

And her route was pretty rural. It crosses over a lot of farmland with a few homes spread across it. One of these witnesses was an eight-year-old boy. He was also cycling that afternoon. He says he saw Helen on Catay Road, which was part of her usual route. Then, a motorist said that he saw her cycling on Dural Road between its intersection with Catay Road and an abandoned airstrip. A man cited as Mr. Moss told police and the Gazette he saw Helen cycling on Dural Road while driving towards Pitt Town. And he says he remembers this pretty vividly. Because after stopping there for only a few minutes, he kept going along the road, and thought it was strange that he never caught up to her.