17-year-old Michelle Bright. Photo: Facebook
UPDATE: AUGUST 2020, A MAN HAS BEEN ARRESTED IN THIS CASE. SEE MORE HERE.
It has been almost 20 years since Michelle Loraine Bright was murdered in her small, idyllic NSW town and it seems, at least publicly, that barely any progress has been made in the case. Information is disparate and unlike some other unsolved murders, attention & media coverage has been sparse. Her family has been broken, her friends deeply affected and a town forever changed. It’s time her loved ones get answers.
As always, please see our ‘evidence board’ for a collection of information, links and names of all references as well as the evidence known, theories and images.
A Small Town Girl
Michelle Loraine Bright was born on 2nd of June, 1981 in NSW, Australia to Greg & Loraine Bright, she had two older brothers - Les & Philip. The family lived a typical Australian country town life in small historic Gulgong, Central West New South Wales, about 300 km north of Sydney.
Gulgong, stands on the traditional lands of Wiradjuri people and is a 19th century Australian gold rush town. Somewhat dusty, steeped in Victorian-era history with a sense of sleepiness and old fashioned charm. It’s a town that would seem quintessential to those who have ever visited country Australia. The population hovers around 2,500 people and everyone knows everyone - small-town gossip has its fair share of place in the local pubs and community centres. There’s a strong sense of community, it’s the kind of place a stranger or tourist would be noticed or stand out.
Michelle was a popular, bubbly 17 year-old schoolgirl described by her friend as having “character beyond her years”. At the time she was killed she had begun working extra hard to achieve good results at school and had ambitions to be a veterinary nurse. In an Australian Women’s Weekly article by Debi Marshall, Loraine describes her daughter as: “just perfect…lovely…a tomboy, who loved older people and animals.” (Australian Women’s Weekly, 1 July 2017). Loraine was close to her daughter, they were like “best mates”.
When Michelle went missing in the early morning hours of Saturday, 27th Feb, 1999 - as is common of many teenagers - she was to be staying at a friend’s house after a local party. It wasn’t until the next day after she failed to appear home when her family realised something was wrong. The next few days were spent searching, convincing the police she was not a runaway and trying to piece together her last known movements. Finally, after being missing for 3 days, Michelle’s body was found on Tuesday, 2 March, 1999.
Michelle Bright (photo age unknown). Photo: Facebook
What We Know
5.30 pm, Friday 26 Feb, 1999: Michelle is dropped off by her mother Loraine to go to a party. Michelle told her mum she planned to stay at her best friend, Lauren’s house. Loraine goes to work at the local RSL (a community pub).
Evening, Friday 26 Feb, 1999: Michelle attends the 15th birthday party of a local friend. According to reports by a counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Hamill SC - many of those who were with and saw Michelle in her final hours at the party had been drinking & smoking cannabis. Little has been publicly stated about events at the party and no known altercations have been revealed by investigators.
Around 12:45 am, Saturday 27 Feb, 1999: Michelle is reportedly dropped off by a couple in front of the Commercial Hotel, a pub, on the corner of Mayne and Herbert Streets in Gulgong, this is the last sighting of her alive. Whether she chose not to stay at her friend’s house for a particular reason is not known or has never been revealed. It’s assumed that after being dropped off she went to Lauren’s around the corner and found no one home/answering. She begins to walk, apparently in the direction of home.
Lunchtime, Saturday 27 Feb, 1999: Michelle has not returned home, Loraine begins to worry and starts to ring around friends. The family spends the drizzly summer night searching & waiting for Michelle.
Sunday, 28 Feb, 1999: The police are notified. Immediately, they treat the case as a potential runaway despite the family explaining this was very unlikely.
Around 3.30 pm, Tuesday 2nd March, 1999: Michelle’s body is found by a man walking his dog around 1 km from her home. She had been dumped face down in long grass off Barney’s Reef Rd (a main road) between the road and the railway line. Her handbag is found nearby. She was half-naked and her bra had been both cut and torn from her body, she had been sexually assaulted.
2000: A reward of $100,000 AUD is offered to encourage people to come forward with evidence that leads to a conviction.
April, 2001: Loraine appeals to police commissioner Peter Ryan to conduct DNA tests of every male in Gulgong.
Sep, 2002: Police from Strike Force Mitcham, investigating the murder, travel to the U.K. Detective Sergeant Cameron Whiteside of Mudgee Police, took "samples"with him to be tested using the most advanced techniques possible.
6 March, 2009: Dozens of family & friends wearing gold ribbons in memoriam attend a coronial inquest, five men, including a former boyfriend, are named as persons of interest. Some evidence is publicly revealed for the first time. The reward is increased, at the recommendation of the coroner, to $500,000.
Michelle’s Mother Loraine & brother Les visit the site where her body was found. Photo credit: Ben Rushton
The Aftermath
“She was super charismatic, warm and fun. She had a big heart and a cheeky grin and everyone just loved her and wanted to be around her” - Kate Hayes, Michelle’s friend.
Being such a small town, it was difficult for the Bright family to live amongst people they may have questioned as suspects. When it came to say goodbye at a service for Michelle, over 2000 people attended, briefly abating neighbourly suspicions. The family had lived in Gulgong for over 16 years when Michelle was killed but Loraine and Greg moved away to the Hunter Valley almost a year later unable to stand walking past echoes of where Michelle had once lived a vibrant life and met her untimely death. Their marriage did not survive and Loraine said the murder ‘broke them’, six years after Michelle’s murder, they separated.
According to Debi Marshall’s 2017 Australian Women’s Weekly article, Loraine contemplated suicide but thoughts of her other children and remaining family kept her going. Time, has not dulled the hurt of Michelle’s loss, her brothers and father live broken by guilt, they felt they should have protected her. They have different lives but are still stuck in that day in 1999 when they lost Michelle.
By all accounts a quiet, dignified, woman, Loraine considers herself Michelle’s spokeswoman. She appears in media with renewed appeals for someone to come forward. She has made appeals directly to the killer asking him to look at his own life, his own family and reflect on the pain it has caused.
“You would think it gets easier as the years go by but it doesn’t. I wake up to the same nightmare every day: my daughter is still dead and that monster is still out there.” - Loraine Bright.
Michelle’s friends love her, they still think of her, still post appeals on social media, comment on stories and want nothing more than her murder to be solved. And Loraine keeps in touch with those childhood friends, many of whom have gone on to have families, it’s bittersweet because she loves to see their lives grow but Michelle should have been growing with them, she would have been 38 this year.
Evidence
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How Was She killed?
As it was summer in Australia by the time she was found, a level of decomposition had affected the body making it difficult to determine the specific method of her murder. However, it was found she had been sexually assaulted and ‘homicidal violence of undetermined aetiology’ was the cause of death. The forensic pathologist, Dr. Paul Botterill, said it was possible the actual mechanism of death was either suffocation or strangulation with a broad ligature, such as a scarf.
Where Was She killed?
The site where Michelle’s body was found, marked by a homemade memorial. Photo credit: Google Streetview
One of the leading investigators dealing with the case, Detective Inspector David Payne believed Michelle died at or near the place her body was found. The belief is based on the fact grass around where she was found was flattened and there was further flattened grass leading out from this area where personal items were also found.
Where Michelle was found off Barney’s Creek Rd, between the rail lines and the road, is about a 20 minute walk from where she was dropped off (based on mapping by Google Maps). The terrain is flat and after reaching the edge of town the houses become few and far between with fields either side of the road and a train track running along Barney’s Creek Rd.
Witnesses
Unfortunately very few official direct witness statements have been released to the public. Some rumours and conjecture went around the small local community but little witness information has been substantiated. Nothing has been released about what, if anything, happened at the party, what else the couple who dropped her off saw or could say. The actual eyewitness statements surrounding the night she died are being kept close to the investigators chests.
The inquest reported: “One rumour in particular in relation to a yellow Holden car being seen near where Michelle’s body was eventually found, took a lot of Police resources. The witness who gave that evidence at Court for the first time told the Inquest that the vehicle was a Mitsubishi and brown in colour.”
Her former boyfriend, Ross MacDonald, when asked by counsel assisting if he could assist the Inquest said that there was no way Michelle would walk home at night by herself and that she must have known her attacker because if it was not someone she knew she would have “fought like hell.” This statement has since been backed up by several of her friends and her family. Her mother Loraine stated in an interview in 2017 with Marnie O’Neill for news.com.au - “The irony is we used to do self-defence classes together and the teacher used to have to pair her up with people who were bigger than her because she was so strong,” Loraine said.
“There’s no way Michelle would have gone with someone she didn’t know, she would have fought so hard. She was terrified of the dark and she would never have walked down (Barney’s Reef Rd where she was found) on her own or with someone she didn’t feel safe with.”
As mentioned in the Inquest many of the witnesses who were with and saw Michelle in her final hours were potentially intoxicated and may have been considered unreliable by investigators.
The general consensus among those who knew her is that Michelle may have accepted a lift with person or persons she was familiar with.
Forensics/Material Evidence
The Commercial Hotel, Gulgong outside which Michelle was dropped the night she died. Photo: Nomad Tales
The police conducted a search of the area where Michelle’s body was found. Michelle’s jacket and handbag were located as well as a button from her jacket and a five-cent piece from her handbag, on the ground nearby. There was vomit on the scene that fitted Michelle’s DNA profile. Although not revealed in the coroners report Loraine, Michelle’s mother, has stated that some hairs were found in Michelle’s hand.
An undetermined amount of time after police searched the area, a family member found a piece of Michelle’s jewellery at the site where her body is found, indicating potentially the area was not appropriately searched or perhaps someone had returned and left it there.
Yet again, probably due to the fact it is such a small community and the investigation is ongoing, investigators have been vague publicly about the forensic material that may be available for testing. But it was stated in the coroner’s report, “That person [the murderer] should know that police still have forensic material available for testing when science has advanced to the stage that a complete profile can be obtained and…compared to the DNA that has been provided by the various individuals during the investigation.” This implies the material they have may, at that time, not be enough - however in the years since then DNA testing has vastly improved.
During the 2009 inquest before Deputy State Coroner Malcolm MacPherson, counsel assisting the coroner Peter Hamill SC, applied to have forensic evidence and intercepted evidence from telephone calls suppressed - this was formally granted by Mr MacPherson. None of that evidence has since been made available.
Suspects
Police have tested some 67 voluntary DNA samples and requested samples from other persons of interest. They narrowed the suspects down to five main persons of interest as stated in the coronial inquest of 2009, two of these suspects have now been cleared leaving three unnamed remaining suspects. One of these suspects is apparently a recent ex-boyfriend who was jealous and unhappy with the way his relationship with Michelle had ended. Another was a local man who appeared particularly and unusually distressed after Michelle was found.
A suspect named publicly, Mark Hawkins - a bricklayer, then 23, who had gone to school with Michelle’s elder brother Les and knew her ‘in passing’ seemed like the strongest suspect for some time after some worrying circumstances raised several red-flags:
Hawkins was convicted of stalking a woman over an eight month period from August 1999, during his stalking trial it was revealed he had snuck into her home, stolen underwear and masturbated while talking on the phone to his victim.
He was then a suspect for a 2000 indecent assault in Mudgee (around 30 km from Gulgong), identified by the victim as being the attacker that followed her and grabbed her breast twice. There was insufficient evidence to charge him.
According to the coronial Inquest, Hawkins was in the vicinity the night Michelle went missing - being a small town on a Friday night this wouldn’t be unusual - however, Hawkins told police he arrived at his wife’s parent’s house at around 1.15am. His wife questioned the timing he provided on several occasions.
Of the men whose DNA was requested, Hawkins is the only one known to have declined saying he had no reason except that he would, “feel funny”. Police installed listening devices in Hawkins’ home revealing tensions and questioning from his wife Kym indicating she thought there was much more to her husband’s lack of cooperation than he was revealing.
After pressure from Kym, Hawkins agreed to provide his DNA, but the day before he was due to meet with police he crashed his car into a tree and couldn’t attend. Eventually, Hawkins did provide DNA but police could still not find sufficient evidence to charge Hawkins or anyone else.
It appears Hawkins still lives in Gulgong, Kym has since divorced him but no further evidence has been found to implicate him and it is worth noting investigators have not linked him to the murder publicly in any way. Being a small-town it is not unusual that a local would be in the vicinity of her disappearance at the time. And, aside from his stalking conviction, there have been no other convictions to note.
Family & friends strongly believe the murderer is someone local, which makes the fact they have not been caught even more terrifying for the small community.
Other Information & Problems with the Investigation
One of the responding police officers called when Michelle was reported missing suggested at the time that she was addicted to amphetamines after finding prescription medicine that wasn’t hers in her bedroom. She was immediately treated as a runaway. From the start it seemed the small local police force were out of their depth.
Former Gulgong police sergeant Bruce Pearce is critical of the initial investigation, he claims there was a lack of structure which led to wasted time and chasing down false leads. Pearce retired soon after the murder.
Pearce indicated that had the body been found sooner, more DNA may have been preserved, suggesting there were indications toward more material initially being present.
During their search the Brights looked further out of town, assuming, that if anything had happened to her, it would not have been a local.
Loraine has stated on several occasions that Michelle was afraid of the dark and would not have wanted to walk home alone in the dark.
Rumours have circulated online that some locals know exactly who committed the murder but are too scared to come forward. This has never been substantiated. In 2002, around what would have been Michelle’s 21st birthday, Loraine stated to The Daily Telegraph reporter Frances O’Shea, “I don't know what it is - the small town code of silence or whatever - but there would be people who know things and haven't come forward.”
It was reported in 2010 that the increase in reward to $500,000 AUD brought about ‘some response’ from the community, Mudgee Police Crime Manager David Payne said, “The majority of the information that has come in was information that police had already been told, however, there has been some new information that is being investigated.” This new information or results of this part of the investigation has not been revealed publicly.
The State of NSW has made much of the reward in the hopes it will bring about important information, as recently as 2018 they were holding press conferences reminding the public of the reward on offer for Michelle’s murder (and others), it is the highest reward in NSW and matches that of the Ivan Milat murders.
As of 2017, the family had not heard from the police with regards to how the investigation was progressing in over 12 months.
Loraine Bright, pictured holding a photograph of Michelle. Photo: News Corp Australia
Remaining Questions
What material do the police have that can be tested against DNA? Are they the hairs Loraine has mentioned? How far do DNA techniques need to advance in order for a full profile to be achieved?
How were the couple who dropped her off eliminated?
Despite many people thinking she must have known her killer. Could a stranger have snatched her, a passing trucker or other transient?
Did anything happen at the party that would raise alarms?
Was Michelle’s jewellery that turned up after the official police search planted by the suspect after returning to the scene or was it just missed by the police?
Raising the reward has done nothing to further a conviction - is there a wall of silence or have police not cast the net wide enough? I.E stranger theory.
If you have any information or evidence that may lead to the capture of Michelle’s killer/killers please contact Crime Stoppers +61800 333 000 or Mudgee Police Station on +612 6372 8599.
If you don’t feel comfortable you can also contact us on tips@unsolvednews.com - you can also contact us with any case you would like to see us cover or general feedback.