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Warning: this article contains the name and image of an Aboriginal person who has died, and contains distressing details.
A Gomeroi woman is hoping new information she has received into her mother’s murder will spur renewed investigation, and lead to long-awaited justice.
43-year-old Theresa Binge was last seen alive leaving Goondiwindi’s Victoria Hotel on June 17 2003.
The Boggabilla mother’s severely beaten body was discovered 12 days later in a storm culvert near Boomi Road, 10 kilometres south of the Queensland border.
No one has ever been charged with her murder.
Daylene Barlow, Ms Binge’s daughter, says the decades-long uncertainty about her mother’s death has haunted her.
“I’ve been going through a lot. My depression is back, my anxiety. I’ve been traumatized,” she told NITV.
“I need closure for my mother.”
New information points finger towards long-held suspicions
Ms Barlow lives in Moree, just an hour and a half from Goondiwindi.
She says she was recently approached by someone claiming to have information relating to her mother’s murder.
Travelling home to Melbourne in 2016, the woman spent the night with locals in Moree while waiting for her train.
The woman told Ms Barlow that another man was also there that night.
“He was a bit intoxicated, and he mentioned a few names [regarding] what happened with Theresa Binge, my mother,” Ms Barlow said, recounting what the woman told her.
“[The host] walked over to her to him and told him to shut his mouth, [saying] ‘You’re a bit too drunk, you’re letting a bit too much out.’
“He put his hands around his mouth to shut his mouth.”
Ms Barlow said rumours involving the man have swirled for years in the area.
“His name got mentioned from day dot.”
Criticisms of police investigations
Ms Barlow says her attempts to relay the new information to police were not easy, and that it took three days for an investigating officer to return her calls.
While she says the emotion of the recent revelations has been tempered by speaking to police, for her the delay fits a pattern that has played out over the 22 years since her mother’s murder.
“Because she’s Blak, who cares?” she questioned.
“I need answers from the police.”
Following an inquest held in Moree in 2008, Deputy State Coroner Jacqueline Milledge deemed Ms Binge’s death a homicide by “persons unknown”.
In her recommendations, Ms Milledge advised NSW Police that the inquest into Ms Binge’s death “can be renewed on discovering of fresh evidence or information.”
A webpage listing the $100,000 reward for information into Ms Binge’s death directs people to the Barwon Local Area Command (LAC), however LACs were phased out by NSW Police between 2017 and 2018.
A link to Barwon LAC on the page leads to a restricted login page.
Speaking to NITV in 2023, the officer originally in charge of the investigation into Ms Binge’s murder said he received “little to no support” from NSW Homicide Branch at the time.
Former detective inspector Greg Lamey said it played a significant role in his decision to leave the police force.
“If Theresa was a 43-year-old white housewife who lived in Balmain, what would be different?” he said.
In a statement to NITV, NSW Police said Ms Barlow’s would be assessed as “part of the ongoing investigation”.
“The murder of Theresa Binge is currently under investigation with State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad Unsolved Homicide Team under Strike Force Flairs-2.
“Anyone with information that may assist investigators are urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.”
