Trudie Adams was 18 years old when she disappeared on 25 June 1978, after hitchhiking home from a dance at Newport Surf Life Saving Club. She was last seen entering a Holden panel van on Barrenjoey Road.
The ABC podcast is investigating the disappearance of Adams as well as the unsolved rapes of 14 women in the same area from 1971 to 1978.
It is believed that the Trudie Adams disappearance and the 14 unsolved sexual assaults are connected, due to their striking similarities.
All 14 women were picked up by two men while hitchhiking on Barrenjoey Road, threatened with a weapon, had their eyes taped shut and then sexually assaulted in the bushland along Mona Vale road.
The two men took down the names and addresses of the women and threatened to kill them if they reported the attacks to police.
The podcast has led to women coming forward with their stories and the police now believe that there are more victims. Those who've recently come forward told Unravel producers the attacks happened around the same time that Trudie Adams went missing.
One woman, Michelle, was with a friend when she was abducted by two men along the same stretch of road while hitchhiking. Michelle said the men told the two women they were going to be raped, but when the men pulled over at the corner of Mona Vale Road they managed to escape.
Neither women reported the incident to police.
Another woman who’s recently come forward, Beth Glyde (63), told Unravel producers that she was driven off the road by three cars in the same location many of the other women were attacked. Beth, a Northern Beaches resident, narrowly escaped the men by putting her car in reverse and speeding away.
Beth, who did report her attempted abduction to police at the time, criticised their response and told Unravel, "They [the police] were not interested in talking to me, nor did they offer to send a car out to have a look."
The cases remain unsolved.
For sexual assault support services please call:
1800 RESPECT: 1800 737 732
Lifeline: 131 114
Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636
