Police say they’ve tracked a woman missing for almost 26 years and found her living under a new identity. The search was prompted by her mother’s recent allegation that her daughter was murdered by her father – an accusation he denied.
Kathleen Marie Aitken (52) last seen by her mother and half-sisters in 1976, was found this week living under a new identity with three children, aged 25 to 27, who had no knowledge of her mysterious background, a police representative said on Friday.
Police would not release Aitken’s new name or location. Officers had confirmed her identity on Tuesday, the representative said on condition of anonymity.
Police looked for the woman after her mother, Sylvia Ross, told a Sydney Coroner’s inquiry last month that she believed her daughter was killed by her former husband, the missing woman’s father, Sydney Aitken. The missing woman’s two half-sisters also told the inquiry they believed their half-sister had been killed by her father.
”He wouldn’t kill anybody by wanting to, but he had a filthy temper and I think that’s what might have happened,” Ross (80) told the Coroner’s Court.
It was unclear why it took her so long to come forward with the
allegation. Protesting his innocence, Sydney Aitken insisted his daughter was alive and that she had visited him in the late 1980s. He gave the court photos he said were given to him by Kathleen and which depicted children he said were his grandchildren.
He also told the court that he barely knew Kathleen’s half-sisters and that they and Ross had concocted their story that he was susceptible to drunken violence. He described Ross as ”a vicious woman.”
Police never charged Sydney Aitken with any crime, handling the
case only as a missing person.
The photos were published in a Sydney tabloid newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, earlier this year and helped police track down the
woman.
Ross told the newspaper on Thursday that she would let her daughter ”cool off” before attempting to visit her.
”I don’t know what made her leave home like that – it’s a big mystery,” she said. – Sapa-AP