THE mother of a Pyramid Hill woman who has been missing for more than seven years says the yearning for answers about her daughter and grandson is as strong as ever.
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Karen Fraser made the comments as Victoria Police prepares a report to the coroner in relation to the disappearance of Krystal Fraser from Pyramid Hill in 2009.
Krystal was due to give birth the day after she went missing.
Police started preparing the report last month, on the seventh anniversary of the 23-year-old’s disappearance, pending an inquest.
Despite strong evidence about Krystal’s final movements, her body has not been found and no charges have been laid.
Mrs Fraser said it was encouraging to see the investigation move into a new phase.
“I’m under the understanding that the judge can deem whether or not she has been murdered. If the judge decides there’s something in this, then he can let it go to the Coroners Court,” she said.
“It would be nice to have the answers, to be able to have the body back to lay to rest.”
The decision to prepare a report for the coroner was the most significant development in the case since June 2012 – three years since Krystal vanished – when police offered a $100,000 reward for information to help solve the mystery.
The reward failed to attract any new leads for police.
Police could not comment on any updates in the case, but confirmed a report was being prepared.
Krystal vanished the day before she was due to give birth to a baby boy, which she would raise without the father. The identity of the father remained unknown.
Just three days before she vanished, Krystal had been taken to Bendigo hospital by ambulance with labour pains. Krystal returned to Pyramid Hill on the day of her disappearance and was last seen leaving a house in Albert Street, Pyramid Hill, at 9.40pm on June 20, 2009.
Police believe Krystal went home, where she received a phone call just before midnight from a public telephone in Leitchville.
Her phone was tracked travelling towards Leitchville at 3am.
Krystal is one of a number of missing people in central and northern Victoria whose fates remain unknown.
As National Missing Persons Week concludes for another year, their families will never give up hope of finding answers.
‘We all just want answers’, mother says
Krystal’s family hopes the coroner’s report into her disappearance can move the case forward, after seven years passed since she was last seen.
Her mother, Karen Fraser, believes the whole town remains desperate to find out what happened on the night of June 20, 2009.
She said the evidence clearly pointed to foul play.
“The only way out of Pyramid Hill at that time of night, after the last train has left, is by car or on foot. There’s no way she could’ve walked, she was that pregnant,” Mrs Fraser said.
“She couldn’t have walked to Cohuna, Kerang or Bendigo, or anywhere else. Someone had to have driven her.”
Krystal was an avid user of the V/Line service through Pyramid Hill, and would regularly make stops at stations along the Swan Hill line.
She had a mild intellectual disability after being born with bleeding on the brain, and was a friendly woman who would talk to anyone who wanted to have a conversation.
Krystal was considered a local identity in Pyramid Hill.
She also rarely strayed far from her phone, spending a large proportion of her time browsing the internet. The fact she did not access the internet after her disappearance was the first sign something was wrong.
Detectives have interviewed several men who admitted to having relationships with Krystal, while two others who took their own lives after her disappearance were not suspected to have been involved.
Police have remained tight lipped about any new information in the case, including to the family, but any new information is likely to come out should the matter reach the Coroners Court when the report is finalised.
Seven years have passed since Krystal went missing, and while Mrs Fraser and others have tried to move on with their lives, they remain committed to following the trail to the end.
“You learn to live with it, life does go on. I have a husband and grandchildren now, you can’t just sit down and wallow,” she said.
“We all just want answers.
“Somebody out there knows something.”
Anyone with new information about the disappearance of Krystal Fraser is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.