Warning: This article contains the name and image of a deceased Aboriginal person, and contains distressing details.
A Gomeroi woman hopes new information she has received about her mother’s murder will lead to renewed investigations and long-awaited justice.
Theresa Binge, 43, was last seen alive leaving Goondiwindi’s Victoria Hotel on June 17, 2003.
The Boggabilla mother’s badly beaten body was discovered 12 days later in a storm culvert near Boomi Road, 10 kilometers south of the Queensland border.
No one has ever been charged with her murder.
Daylene Barlow, Ms. Binge’s daughter, says the decades of uncertainty surrounding her mother’s death have haunted her.
“I’ve been through a lot. My depression is back, my anxiety. I’m traumatized,” she told NITV.
“I need closure for my mother.”
New information points to long-held suspicions
Mrs Barlow lives in Moree, just an hour and a half from Goondiwindi.
She says she was recently contacted by someone claiming to have information about her mother’s murder.
Traveling home to Melbourne in 2016, the woman spent the night with locals in Moree while she waited for her train.
The woman told Mrs Barlow that another man was also present that evening.
“He was a little drunk and said a few names [regarding] what happened to Theresa Binge, my mother,” Ms. Barlow said, recounting what the woman told her.
“[The host] walked up to her and told him to shut up, [saying] “You’re a little too drunk, you’re letting out a little too much.”
“He put his hands around his mouth to close his mouth.”
Ms Barlow said rumors about the man had been swirling in the area for years.
“His name was mentioned from day one.”
Criticism of police investigation
Ms Barlow says her attempts to pass on the new information to police were not easy and it took three days for an investigating officer to call her back.
While she says the emotion of the recent revelations has been tempered by talking to police, for her the delay fits a pattern that has played out over the past 22 years since her mother’s murder.
“Because she’s Blak, who cares?” she asked.
“I need answers from the police.”
Following an inquest in Moree in 2008, Deputy State Coroner Jacqueline Milledge ruled Ms Binge’s death as murder by “persons unknown”.
In her recommendations, Ms Milledge advised NSW Police that the investigation into Ms Binge’s death “may be renewed upon discovery of new evidence or information.”
A web page offering a $100,000 reward for information about Ms Binge’s death refers people to the Barwon Local Area Command (LAC), but the LACs were phased out by NSW Police between 2017 and 2018.
A link to Barwon LAC on the page leads to a limited login page.
Speaking to NITV in 2023, the officer originally responsible for investigating Ms Binge’s murder said he received “little to no support” from the NSW Homicide Branch at the time.
Former Detective Greg Lamey said it played a major role in his decision to leave the force.
“If Theresa were a 43-year-old white housewife living in Balmain, what would be different?” he said.
In a statement to NITV, NSW Police said Ms Barlow’s situation would be assessed as “part of the ongoing investigation”.
“The murder of Theresa Binge is currently being investigated by the Homicide Squad Unsolved Homicide Team of the State Crime Command under Strike Force Flairs-2.
“Anyone with information that could assist investigators is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.”
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