It was a summer night in 1986 when 26-year-old Anita Cobby met friends for dinner in Redfern. 

Afterwards, the registered nurse caught the train from Central Station at 8:48pm, and arrived at Blacktown station just before 10pm. 

Usually, Anita would call her father at the station and he would pick her up, but this night all the surrounding pay phones happened to be out of order. There were also no taxis available at the taxi rank. It was a beautiful, clear night and Anita decided to walk home.

It was 10pm when a gang of five men pulled up beside Anita in a stolen car, grabbed her, and dragged her into the vehicle kicking and screaming. A number of witnesses on Newton Road in Blacktown heard the voice of a distressed young woman and called the police.

It was the next day that the naked body of a young woman was found in a paddock at Prospect in Western Sydney. Police identified her as Anita Cobby. 

One of the women working at Blacktown police station at the time was Deborah Wallace. She was around the same age as Anita, and similar in appearance. The lead detective would choose to do something unconventional in order to find who was responsible for one of the most horrific murders in NSW history. His approach would work, and ultimately it would change the course of Deborah’s career.

CREDITS

Guest: Deborah Wallace

Host: Jessie Stephens

Producer: Lem Zakharia 

LINKS

• The Book ‘A Woman of Force’... https://www.booktopia.com.au/a-woman-of-force-mark-morri/book/9781760787356.html

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