A FORMER California Gully woman heard two shots and screaming the night a 16-year-old girl and her boyfriend disappeared 43 years ago.

Judith Olive Paynting yesterday told the Coroners Court she was a close friend and neighbour of Maureen Braddy, whose mysterious disappearance with Allan Whyte, 17, is being examined.

Ms Paynting told the court she had seen bruises on Maureen’s arm in the days before she disappeared on November 23.

She said she had been watching television with her mother when she heard two bangs about 9pm or 10pm, which she thought were either a gun or car backfiring.

Maureen Braddy.

Ms Paynting said the sounds prompted her to look out the window but she could see neither people nor cars.

She said she believed the bangs were gunshots and she had never seen Maureen since.

“The noises seemed like as if they were coming from very close by, and outside,” she said in a witness statement.

“I don’t remember asking anyone about this. I remember telling my mother at the time because she had asked me what I was looking for and I told her what I had heard.

“I cannot ever remember hearing any other gunshots while I was living in Vinton Street.

“I have a feeling that Mr Braddy [Maureen’s father] may have owned a .22 around this time. I don’t know of anyone else who owned a gun in that street.

“I remember that after the shots I could hear loud screaming both males and females coming from the Braddy house. It sounded as if someone was fighting.

“The screaming didn’t go on overly long but long enough for me to think that there had been a fight there.”

The inquest, sitting in Bendigo, is examining the teens’ disappearance and the police investigation between 1968 and 1998.

A suppression order prevents the Bendigo Advertiser from reporting on some aspects of the case.

Deputy State Coroner Iain West will determine whether foul play was involved, if there is any evidence of criminal activity, where the bodies might be and if there are any suspects or issues surrounding self-incrimination.

The court yesterday heard from four witnesses – Ms Paynting, Allan’s older brother Kevin Whyte, Maureen’s childhood friend Jillian Siddall and a former Braddy neighbour Ngharee Todd.

About 30 witnesses will give evidence during the week-long inquest.

Mr West yesterday excused Stanley Raymond Braddy, Maureen’s brother, from giving evidence due to ill health.

Ms Paynting said in her statement that there was a well outside the Braddy house that she remembered being “quite deep”.

“I remember Mr Braddy [Maureen’s father] putting concrete over the top of it, and then (there) was a room built over the top of it,” she said.

“I believe that this was done some time after Maureen disappeared.”

Ms Paynting said her mother, who had poor hearing and had not heard the shots, told her not to involve herself in the matter.

She said the family did not have a telephone, preventing her from calling the police.

Ms Paynting said Maureen had said to her, “What would you think if I ran away?” in the lead-up to her disappearance.

She said she thought Maureen “was unhappy with her father”, who Ms Paynting described as “a creepy kind of person”.

Ms Paynting said Maureen’s mother told her about 3pm on November 24 that Maureen was missing.

The inquest continues today.