Trudie Jeanette Adams disappeared in the early hours of 25 June 1978 after attending a dance at the Newport Surf Life Saving Club, New South Wales, Australia. She left the event early before hitchhiking home, at which point she entered a vehicle on Barrenjoey Road and has not been seen since. Her disappearance sparked New South Wales' biggest missing person search at the time,[3] attracted extensive and ongoing national media attention, and eventually a $250,000 reward.[4][5]
Trudie Adams' parents and ex-boyfriend, Steven Norris, reported her missing on 25 June 1978 after she failed to arrive home from the dance.[6] Although police initially believed that the car she entered was a green Kombi van, Norris, as the main eyewitness, stated that he saw her enter a light-coloured 1977 Holdenpanel van.[7][8] Police who investigated the case originally cast suspicion on Norris. Eventually he was cleared, and suspicion widened to those involved in the drug scene.[9]
In the days after the attacks, a number of female rape victims, who had been assaulted by two disguised men, began to report a series of then-unknown crimes to police. Investigators then suspected that Adams' disappearance was linked to the 14 now-known violent rapes that had occurred in the Northern Beaches between 1971 and 1978,[10][11] and may also be related to an attempted attack on a hitchhiker earlier on the evening of Adams' disappearance.[12] On 16 August 1978, a reward of $20,000 was offered by the New South Wales government,[3] and over the years her suspected murder has been investigated by police four times.[3][11]
In 1992, the case was reopened based on a refocused interest in the possible involvement of the green Kombi van.[13]
In 2008, the reward was raised to $250,000 for information which would lead to the conviction of her murderer(s).[14]
In 2009, the case's prime suspect, a convicted drug dealer and sex offender known as Neville Brian Tween, who was identified by some of the rape victims, was finally interviewed by police regarding Adams' disappearance.[11] Tween, who had also been a police informant,[15] denied any involvement in the disappearance or the rape cases (despite circumstantial evidence) and died in 2013.[16]
In 2011, an inquest was held in order to further investigate the disappearance of Adams, which resulted in the Coroner declaring that Adams died of "homicide or misadventure."[17]
In 2018, interest in the case was reignited by the airing of the second series of the Australian crime podcastUnravel[18] and TV documentary Barrenjoey Road.[19][20] A number of non-reported crimes and previously unknown victims have also come forward due to the airing of the podcast.[21]