VICTORIA’S top homicide detective believes he knows who killed Maryborough teenager Terry Floyd almost 37 years ago.
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The only problem is he is still searching for the definitive evidence required to put his prime suspect behind bars.
“Raymond Kenneth Jones is who I think is the person who killed him,” Homicide Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles said.
“I have interviewed Jones but there is still not enough evidence.
“He leaves Avoca around 5pm and says he goes to Maryborough and has a shower in his caravan before going back to Avoca around 7.30pm.
“There is a lady who sees a panel van stop near a boy on the side of the road.
“I have just this week received photos of his car – it matches that of the description.”
Terry Floyd was 12 when he disappeared on June 28, 1975.
He had played football in Maryborough for the Rovers before making his way to Avoca in the afternoon.
Terry was last spotted on the corner of the Pyrenees and Sunraysia highways about 4.45pm.
A witness statement to police said a fawn panel van pulled up next to a boy matching Terry’s description near the intersection just before 5pm.
Another witness later identified a boy matching Terry’s description standing alongside a fawn panel van on the Pyrenees Highway about 5.15pm.
Jones, who now lives near Mildura, spent two years in jail for indecently assaulting a boy in a Ballarat toilet block.
He was on bail and drove a 1969 fawn-coloured Holden panel van at the time of Terry’s disappearance.
“We have done a lot of things with Jones (including) listening devices and phone taps,” Detective Senior Sergeant Iddles said.
“If he is not going to tell anyone... and unless someone comes forward and says Raymond Jones told me (he did it), I don’t think we will ever get the truth.
“We are more than 36 years on and some of the people (with possible information) have died.
“Jones is not the type of bloke to tell people – we offered him a polygraph test and he sought legal advice which was don’t do it.”
The Floyd family believe Terry was killed in bush along the Pyrenees Highway and later dumped in a mine shaft.
Daryl Floyd talks about his search for missing brother Terry.
Video: PETER WEAVING. Produced by: EMMA SARTORI.
Terry’s younger brother Daryl has spent his life savings excavating the Morning Star mine shaft, which is near where the boy was spotted on the Pyrenees Highway.
Victoria Police initially contributed $50,000 to the search but have refused further requests for funding.
The state government late last year gave Mr Floyd $25,000 so he could continue to excavate the mine, which resumed earlier this year.
“Daryl knows we would be there if there was evidence he was in that mine shaft,” Detective Senior Sergeant Iddles said.
“One lady has said the mine would be a good spot for him to be but it was just rumour and speculation.”
Detective Senior Sergeant Iddles said finding Terry’s remains would be a step closer to solving the case but would need more evidence to charge a suspect.
He first started investigating Terry’s mysterious disappearance after the Floyd family reached out to him.
“One of Terry’s sisters came with a girl from Castlemaine who wanted to write a book because they were frustrated with the case,” he said.
“From their point of view, it was never finished. I gave them a guarantee I would get it to an inquest.”
And that’s what he did.
Police interviewed more than 200 people about Terry’s disappearance and Detective Senior Sergeant Iddles compiled a 254-page police brief for the Coroner.
Coroner Francis Hender found on November 29, 2001, that Terry had died from unknown causes at an unknown place and an unknown time. Detective Senior Sergeant Iddles said he and Daryl Floyd had differing theories regarding an accomplice to Terry’s death.
He said was willing to re-interview the man Mr Floyd suspected helped kill his brother.
“I can see why Daryl wants to (excavate the mine),” Detective Senior Sergeant Iddles said.
“On the other side, it can become an obsession... he only hears what he wants to hear.
“We have had two good goes at trying to solve it and it is not from a lack of trying.
“It is a lower priority. I have got 45 jobs that I am working on now with three teams. I have done as much as I can and I am going to go and see (the other man).
“I have always said someone knows the answer and we have got to find that person and that is very difficult.
“There still might be someone who knows (what happened) and (that’s why) we put the reward up to $100,000.”
Anyone with information about Terry Floyd’s disappearance can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.