General News
11 December, 2023
Witness accounts needed to bring justice for Floyd family
About half a century ago, Maryborough boy Terry Floyd was abducted and murdered — now, investigators are “100 percent” confident they know who did it but need additional witness accounts to finally bring the culprit to justice. Investigations...
About half a century ago, Maryborough boy Terry Floyd was abducted and murdered — now, investigators are “100 percent” confident they know who did it but need additional witness accounts to finally bring the culprit to justice.
Investigations into Terry’s disappearance have reached a crucial turning point — with the latest information coming from an eye witness who saw the 12-year-old boy standing next to a vehicle, roughly five kilometres out of Maryborough, on the Pyrenees Highway.
After Terry went missing on June 28, 1975, the witness, now deceased, not only went to the police to report what she had observed but also approached a local family, enquiring whether they had seen the incident as well.
Members of this family have recently come forward — passing on those key details to retired homicide detective Charlie Bezzina, who took on the case as a private investigator a couple of months ago.
Making a renewed plea for information, Mr Bezzina said as of July this year, investigators have received further sightings of Terry in the same area, around a particular motorcar, and he is urging anyone who might be able to further corroborate that, to come forward.
“We’re asking people if there has been a discussion within their family unit since 1975 — it could be their grandmother, auntie or anyone else, who saw a car and a young boy over that period, 48 years ago,” he said.
“If you’ve ever heard your family member say they saw something suspicious, let us know.
“Our problem is that because of the tyranny of time, a number of key witnesses have passed so this is our last ditch effort and we want people to come forward so we can add credibility to those existing statements.”
While nearly five decades have passed, Mr Bezzina is positive that the case is solvable — he believes the offender responsible for Terry’s abduction can also be brought to justice, but time is of the essence.
“[I am] 100 percent confident that the person we’ve identified as the suspect, who is in his 80s, is responsible,” he said.
“Because it happened so long ago, a lot of people have aged and died which is why we want police to take action sooner rather than later, before this suspect dies.
“Once he passes, we can’t do anything, we can’t chase or question someone who is deceased so we need Victoria Police to do what they can and only they can do it, because we can’t.”
For Terry’s brother, Daryl Floyd, pushing for a resolution over the years has been extremely “frustrating” but he keeps soldiering on, with the belief that the case will be solved.
“We’ve found out that at least three separate people came forward within weeks of my brother going missing and they gave significant information to the police that wasn’t followed up on,” Mr Floyd said.
“It’s been a huge emotional rollercoaster ride — it’s very frustrating and traumatic because you’re dealing with the likelihood that this could have been solved in the first couple of weeks of my brother going missing.
“That’s totally gut wrenching but you leave that in the past and you look at the present, at what we’re able to do now to resolve this.”
According to Mr Floyd the community’s assistance was key and urged everyone to “work together”.
“There’s pieces of information that are really damning in relation to Terry’s disappearance,” he said.
“This information has come from locals in the past so I really want to reach out to them again. If you or a relative you know of, went to the police in 1975, please get in touch with us as well — people are thinking they’ve done their community duty, which they have and spoken out, but nothing was done about it back then so if we can find out any more information, it’s going to go a long way to help solve this case.
“Every case is solvable, at the end of the day you can’t just have people go missing and have no information.”
Early next year, Mr Bezzina will hand over a report with all the statements with further recommendations, to Victoria Police Homicide Squad and the Missing Persons Squad.
Anyone with information regarding Terry’s disappearance is encouraged to contact Mr Bezzina and other investigators at findingterryfloyd@gmail.com or by phoning a new hotline set up by Stop Line Call Centre at 1800 491 697.