Bellambi backyard body find shocks neighbours

By Bevan Shields
Updated November 6 2012 - 1:31am, first published March 2 2011 - 12:06am
The Bellambi backyard where the body was found.
The Bellambi backyard where the body was found.

From the air, the Bellambi backyard where Louise O’Brien’s body was buried in a garbage bin looks like any other.The only difference is a patch of disturbed earth where police uncovered what’s believed to be the 20-year-old’s badly decomposed remains on Monday.The bin was hidden 2m deep between the fibro house and a timber fence and a short distance from a children’s playground across the road.Preliminary forensic investigations suggest it may have been there since late 2009.Wollongong police crime manager Detective Chief Inspector Joe Mura said Ms O’Brien’s mother reacted with ‘‘shock and horror’’ when told the remains could be her daughter’s because there was no reason to fear for her safety.Ms O’Brien had not lived with her family since 2009.‘‘The family was given information from other people that she was at the location and doing well,’’ Insp Mura said.‘‘They were obviously misled.’’Seventy-three-year-old grandmother Patricia Goddard, a friend of Ms O’Brien and her estranged family, fronted Wollongong Local Court yesterday charged with murder.She did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody until her next court appearance.A member of the public reported Ms O’Brien missing on Saturday even though she had not been seen since October 2009.Police allege Ms O’Brien was murdered at a home in Wynn St, Woonona, before her body was taken to the Chounding Cres, Bellambi, property two days later.The Mercury understands the home where the murder allegedly occurred is occupied by a relative of Goddard and was where Ms O’Brien lived.Neighbours are stunned.‘‘I just can’t believe it - it’s like a nightmare and I feel sick in the guts,’’ said Jason Stella, who lives next door to the alleged murder scene.‘‘Louise was a beautiful young girl - she had her whole life ahead of her.‘‘I can’t believe this could have happened right under our noses.’’The Bellambi and Woonona homes remained cordened off last night as neighbours gathered outside to share a collective sense of shock.‘‘As you do, occasionally you run out of a cup of sugar or something and Louise would come down to my place and ask for something and she was always so lovely,’’ Joanne McGoldrick said yesterday.‘‘This just seriously does not make sense, it really doesn’t.‘‘None of us can believe it.’’ DID YOU KNOW LOUISE? POST YOUR TRIBUTE HERE

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