Unwilling to dismiss their concerns any longer, Colleen Adams‘ parents phoned South Australia Police. It was 19 December 1973, and the couple hadn’t heard from their daughter for five weeks.
The 24-year-old mother of two’s husband, Geoffrey, had told them she’d walked out. That, without explanation, she’d packed two suitcases and fled their Maitland home, fled him, fled her beloved young children, then aged just three-and-a-half and 18 months.
But on Thursday afternoon, almost 45 years on, Colleen’s skeletal remains were discovered in the backyard of the Bagnall Ave property. Her husband has been arrested and charged with murder.
The disappearance of Colleen Adams.
According to police, Geoffrey Adams, claimed to have last seen his wife at around 7am on November 22, 1973.
He said he’d woken to find her fully dressed, suitcases ready.
He said she told him leaving and never wanted to see him or their two children again.
He said she’d climbed into a white 1968 model Ford Falcon sedan with an unknown, middle-aged woman, and left.