THE inquest into the disappearance and presumed murder of Bathurst teenager Jessica Small has been set down for hearing next year.
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One week has been set aside for the matter to be heard in Bathurst Court House from August 12, 2013.
It is now more than 15 years since Jessica was abducted after she and her friend accepted a lift with a stranger on October 26, 1997.
Jessica’s mum, Ricki Small, said yesterday the inquest “had been a long time coming”.
“They certainly haven’t rushed into it,” she said.
Mrs Small said she felt as if a lifetime had gone by since Jessica was taken.
“It’s been a 15-year sentence and we still haven’t gotten to the bottom of it. Enough is enough,” she said.
Jessica had been at the Amuse Me entertainment centre in Russell Street and was walking with her friend Vanessa Conlon in the CBD when they accepted a lift with a man driving a white Holden Commodore.
The driver was going to drop the girls at another friend’s house in Kelso, but he stopped the car in Hereford Street and a struggle took place.
Vanessa made it out of the car and heard Jess screaming, but the 15-year-old has not been seen nor heard from since.
In the 15 years since her abduction, the handling of Jessica’s case has angered her family.
The initial police brief was completed in October 2006 but was rejected as inadequate by the state deputy coroner, who noted at the time there were “a number of outstanding matters”.
The brief was then “misplaced” for almost six months, before being returned to Bathurst Police.
A second strike force, made up of Sydney-based homicide detectives, took over the investigation in October 2007, and it gained momentum last year after Detective Sergeant Peter Smith came across new information about a man who worked at an Oberon Timber Mill and was present at Amuse Me with Jessica the night she was abducted.
Police now know that man made specific enquiries about Jessica on the evening.
As a result detectives have travelled as far as Perth to conduct their investigations, and also used cadaver dogs to search an area near the Fish River at O’Connell in July this year.
While that search failed to locate any trace of Jessica, Detective Sergeant Smith said police believe Jessica was taken there by her abductor but buried at another location.
He was unable to comment on how many witnesses would be called to the inquest, saying only it would be held in Bathurst in two parts beginning on August 12 next year.
