My Best Friend Was Murdered By A Serial Killer

Cheryl is speaking out in a bid to solve a series of shocking crimes.

- John Parrish

When Cheryl Goldsworthy was asked to help front a $6 million appeal to catch a serial killer, she made a call first.

It was to Hazel Headland, mother of her best friend Catherine, one of six victims of a serial slayer who stalked Melbourne.

‘Catherine’s murder has haunted me,’ Cheryl, a 51year-old mother-of-two from Cranbourne, tells New Idea.

‘The pain has been so raw for her family, they can’t discuss it publicly. I needed Hazel’s blessing. Hazel told me: “You’ve got to do this.” A $6 million reward could be the last chance she has to find out who killed her daughter and the other women.’

Cheryl was in Year 5 at Berwick Primary School, in the outer Melbourne suburb, when she met Catherine. It was the late ’70s. Berwick was a sleepy suburb with dirt roads.

‘She’d just moved in around the corner and came cycling down my road, a pretty girl, wearing trendy white jeans, hair flying behind her,’ says Cheryl.

They were in the same composite class and became close. Confident and athletic, Catherine was in charge.

‘A gang of us rode bikes, swung ropes over the creek in nearby Akoonah Park, explored and just hung out. It was idyllic,’ says Cheryl. ‘I idolised her.’

The pair walked to and from school together and were always in and out of each other’s homes.

In high school, they exchanged leather friendship bracelets. Catherine wore hers on her ankle. At 14, she began dating John McManus.

‘He liked AC/DC, Catherine the Bay City Rollers. We thought he was a rebel,’ Cheryl explains, laughing.