Over three decades have passed since Tracey Valesini disappeared without a trace from her home in the NSW Blue Mountains – and her family are still desperate to find out what happened to her.
“Finding Tracey would represent the end of wanting answers, and being able to give us the dignity that she was denied,” Tracey’s older sister Sharon Robards tells Woman’s Day.
“I don’t like the word closure, as I don’t think you ever get closure – but everyone would be able to end that part of their life and not think about it anymore. I know with myself, on and off, I just step right away and try not to think about Tracey’s disappearance, but ultimately you can’t push it away.”
ANONYMOUS TIPS
The last confirmed sighting of Tracey, who was just 20-years-old, was a court hearing on January 8, 1993 in Campbelltown.
Currently, authorities believe Tracey was killed in either January or February that year by one of her housemates, bikie Arthur ‘Jock’ MacKenzie, for threatening to report a break and enter he’d planned to police.
“Jock shot her because she was going to the police, so he shot her… there was blood everywhere, all over the bathroom and they spent all day cleaning it up,” a police brief obtained by the Daily Telegraph, read.
A Coronial Inquest held in February 2006 also found that Tracey had likely died between December 1992 and December 1993 from injuries inflicted on her by someone else but there was not enough to lay charges against anyone. Her remains have never been found.
Hoping to find answers for Tracey’s family, True Crime Australia is reinvestigating her disappearance and suspected death in their three-part series, Left in the Cold – Find Tracey Valesini, and Sharon hopes the new multimedia investigation will inspire people with any information to come forward.
“It’s been a long time since the Coronial Inquest and nothing has actually happened,” Sharon says.
In July 2017, the NSW Government announced a $100,000 reward for information that would lead to finding those responsible for Tracey’s disappearance.
That same year, an anonymous witness contacted Crime Stoppers with credible information on where Tracey was buried and told them someone wanted to “dig up her body and get the bullets,” but officers didn’t follow up this tip.
“Three months later, that source found me on my Facebook page saying they had information that was almost identical to what I had been told after the Coronial Inquest, and it was impossible that they could’ve come up with that information,” Sharon reveals.
“It’s disappointing the police didn’t take a formal statement from that person because if they die tomorrow, that information would be lost.”
THE SUSPECTED KILLER
In 2004, MacKenzie was deported to Scotland for breaking and entering, importing illegal drugs, possessing a fraudulent passport, guns and ammunition, as well as committing serious indictable offences.
During the inquest, coroner John Abernethy identified MacKenzie as being “intimately involved” with Tracey’s death, and said there could be people out there with evidence that could’ve put MacKenzie on trial in Australia.
“Any one of them, for any number of reasons, could possibly come forward and give police the evidence they need to put the people in Australia on their trial and bring MacKenzie back to Australia for a trial,” he said.
“MacKenzie, who I believe is intimately involved in the matter.”
In 2023, MacKenzie was charged with child sex offences, which he was found guilty of by a jury in October – but he died in prison from bronchopneumonia the following January before his sentence was handed down.
LAYING HER TO REST
When the police announced the cash reward for information, Tracey’s terminally ill mum Sandra McSavaney released an emotional public plea alongside it.
“Someone knows what happened to my girl, and enough is enough – please tell the police what you know and help put my mind at ease,” Sanda said in February 2017.
“If anything, I want to be able to bring her home and say proper goodbyes – the least Tracey deservesis to rest in peace.
“We’ve had way too many birthdays and too many Christmases without Trace, and I am pleading for someone to come forward so that today, her 45th birthday, is our last without answers.”
But heartbreakingly, Sandra lost her six-year-long battle with lung cancer in 2019.
“It was really sad that Mum didn’t get the answers that she wanted and needed,” Sharon says.
Still holding onto hope, Sharon is encouraging anyone with information about Tracey’s disappearance to contact Crime Stoppers.
“It’s so important to me that we find where she is,” Sharon tearily tells.
“So we can lay her to rest where her daughters can go and see her.”
To learn more about the case, visit leftinthecold.com.au
