I FOUND MY AUNTY SUSAN'S BODY... 35 YEARS AFTER SHE VANISHED

When Dylan was a teenager, he made the shock discovery – now he wants to find his relative’s killer

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It was actually a family looking for garden mulch in dense bushland in Kiwarrak State Forest on the NSW Mid North Coast who first discovered the human remains of Dylan Walsh’s aunt, Susan Isenhood, 33 years ago.

The grim discovery began one of the most botched and bizarre murder mysteries in the state’s history – from bungled autopsies and inept detective work to rumours of a serial killer at work – and it continues to haunt Susan’s family. It’s also the story of a young man who began searching for a relative he had never met, his gorgeous Aunty Susan, who had vanished after being dropped off in Newcastle by her brother in 1985.

Dylan was still a teenager when he began searching the internet in 2003, looking for any evidence of Susan – a beautiful blonde-haired woman he only knew from photographs.

His grandmother, Susan’s mother Elva, also told him about the free-spirited girl who let her whim take her where she wanted, which was a trait that didn’t help when she first vanished.

And it didn’t take long for young Dylan to make inroads.

Just like the family looking for garden mulch 16 years earlier, Dylan came across the unidentified bones from Kiwarrak State Forest off Joes Cutting Road at Possum Brush, south of Taree.