page_title: Wanda Beach Murders
section_title: Investigation
hierarchical_section_title: Wanda Beach Murders / Investigation
caption_attribution_description: Cronulla Dunes
context_page_description: The Wanda Beach Murders, sometimes referred to simply as "Wanda", are the case of the unsolved murders of Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock at Wanda Beach near Cronulla in Sydney, Australia on 11 January 1965. The victims, both aged 15, were best friends and neighbours from the suburb of West Ryde, and their partially buried bodies were discovered the next day. The brutal nature of the slayings and the fact that they occurred on a deserted, windswept beach brought massive publicity to the case. By April 1966, police had interviewed some 7,000 people, making it the largest investigation in Australian history. It remains one of the most infamous unsolved Australian murder cases of the 1960s, and New South Wales' oldest unsolved homicide case.
context_section_description: When the scene was examined, Schmidt was found lying on her right side with her left leg bent. Sharrock was face down, her head against the sole of Schmidt's left foot. Both had scratch marks on their faces. From a 34-metre (112 ft) long drag mark leading to the scene, police determined that Sharrock had fled, possibly while Schmidt was dying, only to have been caught, incapacitated, and dragged back to the body of her friend. An intensive search was undertaken to find the murder weapons, a long knife and some sort of blunt instrument, but they were never found. Tonnes of sand from around the murder scene were sifted through and various items were found, including a blood-stained knife blade, but police were unable to link it to the murders.
  The autopsy for Sharrock found a BAC of 0.015, but alcohol was not found in Schmidt's autopsy. It was also discovered that Sharrock had consumed food (cabbage and celery – i.e. possibly a Chiko Roll) that was different from the rest of the party; it is suspected this occurred while she was alone. Sharrock's skull had been fractured by a blow to the back of the head and she had been stabbed 14 times. Schmidt's throat had been deeply slashed and she had been stabbed 6 times. Their underwear had been cut, and attempts had been made to rape both girls. Semen was found on both girls but the autopsy showed that their hymens were intact. Schmidt's brother Hans had viewed photos of her body and said, "She'd been stabbed 25 to 30 times. She'd almost been decapitated because her throat had been cut so viciously."
  It was also during Sharrock's absence that Wolfgang noticed a teenage boy hunting crabs. Later, he claimed to have seen the same boy twice more, once in the company of his sister and Sharrock and again sometime much later walking alone. There has been doubt about his description of this person, as Wolfgang's testimony over time variously suggested he had a homemade speargun, a fishing knife, or both. The last official sighting of Schmidt and Sharrock was around 12:45 by local fireman Dennis Dostine, who was walking in the area with his son and saw the girls walking about 730 metres (2,400 ft) north of the surf club. He told police that they seemed to be hurrying, and one of the girls often looked behind her as if they were being followed. Dostine did not see anybody else. There had been a number of people seen in the area who were never identified and never came forward.
  The funerals were held on 20 January, and an A£10,000 reward was posted in February (later converted to A$20,000 in 1966), which stood unchanged as of August 2002. In April 1966, the coroner handed down his report, by which time police had interviewed some 7,000 people, making it the largest investigation in Australian history. Despite this, the crime quickly became a cold case, and none of the three main suspects (see next section) fit the description of the surfer youth who has never been identified. The case was reopened in 2000, and in February 2012, the NSW Police's Cold Case Unit announced that a weak male DNA sample had been extracted from a pair of white shorts worn by Sharrock. While admitting that current technology was unable to provide more information, police were confident that future advances would give more assistance. In July 2014, police said that a semen sample taken from Schmidt's body had been lost and could not be located despite an extensive search.
caption: The Wanda sand hills
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