EVERY day, four-year-old Charlie Hillier asks questions about the grandmother she has never met.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
They are questions to which her own mother, Belinda Hillier, has no answers.
Ms Hillier is the daughter of Eden woman Sylvia Pajuczok who was last seen alive on December 23, 2008, while visiting a friend at Rockton, near Bombala.
While it is presumed the 53-year-old grandmother was murdered, her body has never been found.
Speaking to the Bombala Times last week, Ms Hillier, 38, of Sydney, said because of the circumstances surrounding her mother’s mysterious disappearance it was impossible to answer Charlie’s questions, or those of her eldest daughter, Maddison, who was only a toddler at the time.
“There are no answers,” Ms Hillier said. “It’s horrible and it’s very hard.”
“Only yesterday, Charlie wanted to know why we couldn’t put a ladder up to heaven so Grandma could climb down and be with us.”
A coronial inquiry into Ms Pajuczok’s disappearance will resume in Bombala on October 20.
It has been set down for four days and it will be the first time that hearings have been held outside Sydney.
“I believe the move [to Bombala] can only benefit our long time mystery,” Ms Hillier said.
“It will mean that Mum’s disappearance will be right in the faces of the people of Bombala.
“It’s a small town, the arrival of the coroner from Sydney to investigate [what is presumed to be a murder] will be a big thing,” she said.
Ms Hillier also believes it will be beneficial for the coroner to gain an understanding of the geographical nature of the nature – as well as its psyche.
“When he sees where Mum’s Tarago was found [abandoned on the Monaro Highway between Rockton and Bombala on December 27, with her handbag, glasses and cigarettes locked inside] he will know that it wasn’t a case of her stepping out of the car and, for example, accidentally falling,” she said.
Ms Hillier is full of praise for the detectives who have worked long and hard on the case of her mother’s disappearance, and also the coroner’s office.
“I can feel their frustration,” she said. “They want to find answers for us and also themselves.”
“At the end of the day they are also husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, who have missed birthdays, anniversaries and school concerts all because they have been tied up on Mum’s case.
“Millions of dollars and countless hours have been devoted to it.”
Ms Hillier believes someone in Bombala knows something.
A person of interest has been identified and she believes he will be asked to appear before the coroner.
With all hope of finding her mother alive all but over, Ms Hillier’s wish now is for her mother’s body to be found.
“I would love to be able to lay her to rest,” she said.
“I would love to be able to finally say goodbye.
“I can never give up hope of that happening.”