08/06/2026
Yet another sad story:
Cherylee Masters was just 17 years old when she vanished in September 2000, leaving behind a life that, though complicated, was filled with family and small joys. Cherylee had told her friends on September 22, 2000, that she planned to travel to the Maitland area, and she was never seen again. Her disappearance was officially reported to police on October 10, 2000, prompting extensive inquiries by officers from the Manning Great Lakes Local Area Command.
Cherylee was known to frequently hitchhike across New South Wales, often catching rides with truck drivers, which complicated tracking her movements after she was last seen. For six years, her fate remained a mystery until 2006, when skeletal remains were discovered by Australian Defence Force personnel conducting an exercise in Yarratt State Forest, near Taree. The remains were found late in the afternoon on September 17, 2006, near a forest track and were subsequently taken to the Department of Forensic Medicine in Newcastle for examination. Crime scene analysis revealed evidence suggesting violence, leading police to establish a strike force to investigate her death.
Due to the state of the remains, the NSW Police Force sought assistance from DNA experts in New Orleans to confirm the identity. After extensive testing, the Deputy State Coroner at Taree formally confirmed that the remains were Cherylee Masters. Cherylee’s father, Tony Masters, described her as a girl who loved hopscotch, skipping, and animals, and emphasized that her life and personality extended far beyond her tragic disappearance. He also explained that Cherylee had spent much of her early life in foster care and had developmental challenges that made her mentally closer to a 13- or 14-year-old despite her age.
After the discovery of her remains, bureaucratic mishandling delayed proper closure for the family. Cherylee’s remains were misplaced for years, and her father passed away before a funeral could be held. Police did not attend a memorial service, further compounding the family’s grief. The 2009 coronial inquest offered few answers; the coroner’s report misrepresented her name and failed to fully acknowledge sightings of Cherylee in 2000, stating that her death occurred sometime between 1995 and 2005 in unknown circumstances.
In recent years, new evidence emerged linking Cherylee’s case to other unsolved incidents on the NSW North Coast. A woman known as Mrs. Northam provided a witness statement during the inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell, detailing that Cherylee had been seen near Brimbin Road, close to the site where her remains were later recovered. The statement also implicated Frank Abbott, a convicted child s*x offender, who had connections to Cherylee’s father through local market work and had previously been linked to other unsolved murders, including that of Margaret Cox in 1996.
Despite these potential links, Abbott has denied involvement, and police have yet to pursue all lines of inquiry fully. The witness statements and coroner’s findings suggest that systemic failures within the Unsolved Homicide Team—missing evidence, uninvestigated tips, and backlogs of unopened files—have hindered progress in Cherylee’s case. Tony Masters has publicly appealed for renewed investigations into the evidence, urging authorities to take even minimal steps to investigate and interview potential witnesses, stressing the need for accountability.
Cherylee Masters is one of 67 women and children murdered or reported missing on the NSW North Coast between 1977 and 2009 whose cases remain unresolved. Her case exemplifies the challenges faced by investigators in cold cases and the enduring pain for families seeking justice. Tony Masters continues to campaign for further investigation, hoping that authorities will act on the information that has come to light in recent years, ensuring that Cherylee’s life and tragic death are not forgotten.
