During the last weeks of her life, 20-year-old Renae Marsden was looking at bridal websites and preparing to marry the man she loved. Her bedroom in Glenhaven in Sydney was lined with her favourite peep-toe shoes in every colour, and she would lie on her bed and scroll through pages of dresses and veils, and plan her perfect day. At just 152cm she was diminutive, but she always filled up a room with her loud laugh and bright personality.
“That laugh of hers …” her mother Teresa says, breaking off. “We’d go to awards nights at the school and she’d cheer for her brothers, and the principal would say, ‘Okay Renae, we know you’re here.’ That’s how vocal she was. She was proud of them.”
All Renae ever wanted was a family of her own. The evening she went missing, she had been babysitting her little sister Monique while Teresa took her boys, Jake and Luke, to their swimming lesson. Renae told her mother she was planning to have dinner with friends and would drop Monique at their grandfather’s house on her way out. The date was August 5, 2013. She was never seen again.
Later that night, Renae’s car was discovered abandoned at The Gap, a notorious suicide spot in eastern Sydney. Police determined she had taken her own life. But Teresa and her husband Mark sensed something darker was at play.
“We said from day one, ‘This is not normal’,” Teresa says. “We were ringing up everyone we could think of. We went to the police and said, ‘Something’s not right here.’ They thought I was stupid. ‘You’re just a mum. Go home.’”
This story is from the April 2020 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the April 2020 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Where to go in 2024
Who doesn't love fantasising about their next trip? We've gone for lesser-known locations, and whether you're seeking bright lights, striking natural scenery, serenity or excitement, here's where you're sure to find it.
Money matters with Effie
Didn’t reach your financial goals in 2023? While a new year won’t wipe away pressures like rising costs, there are a few things you can do now to refresh your money mojo in 2024.
Bright stars in a rugged land
The hot, dusty opal fields around Lightning Ridge in outback NSW have traditionally been a man's world. Now The Weekly meets the women who have been struck by opal fever.
The gift of life
Maureen Elliott had just months to live when she went on St Vincent's Hospital's transplant list. Thirty years on she's one of the longest living heart-lung transplant recipients in the world.
An uncaged heart
After more than two years in Iranian jails, Kylie Moore-Gilbert has forged a new life that's brimming with love, and a determination to help others who have been wrongfully imprisoned.
The woman behind The King
As Sofia Coppola's biopic Priscilla readies to hit screens, we look back at the early life and great love of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley.
Say hello to the Cockatoo cake
When we put a call-out to our readers for their best children's cakes we were inundated with recipes, and this clever cockatoo was ahead of the flock.
The French revolution
Dawn French quit her sketch show because she felt so ugly. Now the \"roly-poly comedian\" wants us all to stop fretting about our faults. She talks body image, surviving the 1980s and owning her mistakes.
Trump's women
Will it be the jailhouse or the White House for Donald Trump this year? The women in his life could make all the difference.
Can you buy a good night's sleep?
Forty per cent of Australians have trouble sleeping, and the market has responded with a mind-boggling array of sleep aids. But do any of them actually work? The Weekly goes in search of slumber.
