WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised the following article contains the name of Indigenous people who have died.
The families of three children allegedly murdered decades ago have called for a joint inquest amid claims they had been kept in the dark by police.
It comes six years after the NSW Police Unsolved Homicide Squad took over the investigation into the deaths of Evelyn Greenup, four, and 16-year-olds Clinton Speedy-Duroux and Colleen Walker-Craig.
In a social media post, the Indigenous youths' families say they have written to NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon requesting the joint inquest in a bid to spark a cold case breakthrough.
The children went missing from northern NSW's Bowraville in 1990.
Evelyn and Clinton's remains were discovered in nearby bushland in 1991.
Colleen's clothes were found weighed down in the nearby Nambucca River but her body has never been found.
A coroner later found she had most likely been murdered.
Colleen's brother Lucas Craig said a coronial inquest combining all three deaths would allow evidence from each case to be linked.
"It's very important that we get the inquest because we really want to trial these kids together as serial killings," he told AAP.
Clinton's sister-in-law Leonie Duroux also called for an inquest in a Facebook post on Monday.
"Unless you put all three cases together you cannot get an accurate picture of what occurred and we believe it is in the public interest," she said.
In a letter to the NSW Police Commissioner and Police Minister, Ms Duroux said Clinton's mother had been kept in the dark when officers returned to the town in 2024.
They also made no communication with her during the following 12 months, she said.
Ms Duroux, who is also Indigenous Missing Persons Support Services director, said Unsolved Homicide Squad investigators had not been trauma-informed or culturally appropriate when dealing with families.
She said previous detectives had "put themselves in the firing line" to establish good connections with families.
"The day that the matter was handed over to the Cold Case Homicide Squad, is the day that relations with the police went back 30 years," Ms Duroux said.
The three cases were originally investigated separately before being linked, amid concerns raised about the initial police response.
A 2014 parliamentary inquiry into the response provided 15 recommendations, including bolstering police communication as well as cultural training and developing a case study detailing lessons learnt from the Bowraville investigation.
In September, police returned to the northern NSW town in a renewed bid to find Colleen's body after her mother Muriel Craig made a plea for information.
In 2020 police introduced a $1 million reward for any information leading to the arrests and convictions of the people or person responsible for the murders.
A man was previously charged over two of the children's murders, but he was acquitted.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon and Police Minister Yasmin Catley declined to comment.
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Australian Associated Press
