March 26, 2013, 8:53 a.m.
More than 20 years after a young nanny was bashed and left for dead beside a road in north-western NSW, police are appealing for information about a dark blue Datsun car that could help solve the mystery of her death.
Penny Hill, 20, was beaten unconscious and found slumped against a paddock gate on the side of a road in the tiny town of Coolah on July 8, 1991.
She was taken to hospital in Newcastle but never regained consciousness. She died two weeks later.
Now, nearly 22 years after her death, police have received new information about a car seen at the motel in Coolah where Ms Hill was staying on the night she was assaulted.
Police initially were told that the vehicle seen at the Black Stump Motor Inn was a Commodore, but they now believe it may have been a dark blue Datsun Stanza.
Detectives have started searching for vehicles that match that description and are forensically examining them in an operation that is expected to take a number of weeks.
Detective Sergeant Jason Darcy, from the Western Region Unsolved Homicide Squad, renewed his appeal for anyone with information about Ms Hill's death to come forward, particularly anyone with information about the car.
“Investigators wish to speak with any person in Coolah who may have seen a dark blue Datsun Stanza in Coolah on the weekend Penny was assaulted,” he said.
“We believe a number of persons may not have come forward because a different vehicle was originally reported.”
Ms Hill had moved from her home in Narrabri to Coolah on Friday, July 5, 1991 after she was offered a job as a nanny to the three boys of Col and Barbara Baigent, the new owners of the Black Stump Motor Inn.
Mr Baigent had been the drummer for the rock group Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs in the 1960s, before he and his wife moved to the country to raise their family.
However, after one day Mrs Baigent decided Ms Hill was too young and not responsible enough to care for her children and planned to let her stay the week before sending her home with a reference.
It was a busy weekend in Coolah on the weekend Ms Hill was assaulted, with a golf tournament, tennis competition and rugby league game all major events in the town.
Police believe Ms Hill was probably bashed in her room at the motel, although there were no obvious signs of struggle, before her body was dumped 800 metres down the road.
She was discovered early the next morning, fully clothed, bleeding from the head and with a cord from an electric jug clenched in her left hand.
In the weeks after her killing, police suspected the restaurant chef, a loner and firearms enthusiast, might have been the killer. He died in a car crash in November that year and police no longer believe he was the murderer.
A second inquest into Ms Hill's death last year returned an open finding.
The inquest heard that DNA samples were found in a secret compartment last year in the Black Stump Motel. A rifle butt and a used condom were in the compartment which police can date to the time of the death of Miss Hill.
Police have collected DNA from hundreds of men who were in Coolah on the weekend of Ms Hill's death in a bid to track down anyone connected to her death.
Anyone with information has been urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.
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