We still grieve for her to return home”: Man charged with murder of Kokoberra woman Ms Bernard

A non-Indigenous man – the last man to see Ms Bernard alive – has been charged with her murder.

A non-Indigenous man has been charged with the murder of Kokoberra woman Ms Bernard, who was disappeared in Coen, in Far North Queensland, over 10 years ago. He was the last person to see Ms Bernard alive.

A coronial inquest which in part probed the QPS response to Ms Bernard’s disappearance, was ongoing at the time of the charges being laid. Despite over 11 years passing since Ms Bernard was last seen, she has still not been found, and her family still long for her to return home, to bring her spirit back to her country.

The events are significant as until today, Ms Bernard’s disappearance has never been viewed as a homicide by the QPS. Ms Bernard is one of three Aboriginal women who had been disappeared in the state of Queensland – one being Monique Clubb, in 2013, and Constance May Watcho in 2017. Just like Ms Bernard, Monique Clubb’s case and Constance May Watcho’s case had never been viewed as potential homicides. This is despite the fact that the women were all seen in the company of white men before they were disappeared.

Ms Bernard is remembered by her family as a “cheeky little girl” who grew up in the loving presence of her community of Kowanyama. She loved dancing and swimming in the freshwater of her country. She was grown up by her mother Aunty Dellis Burns, and was still close to her other mother – Aunty Edwina Bernard.

In February 2013, Ms Bernard was making her way home to her family to attend her son’s birthday. Ms Bernard was a loving mother to three children, one of whom had passed, and she was known to never miss a special occasion, even if she was travelling away from her children. When she did not make it back home, her family immediately contacted the local Kowanyama police station, to report her missing.

Ms Bernard was last seen at the Exchange Hotel in Coen, leaving the premises with a local non-Indigenous man, who admitted taking her to the Archer River quarry that night. Since then, her family have not stopped fighting for justice for her, despite the lead investigator suggesting as late as 2021, that he still considered the most likely possibility being a case of her walking off into the wilderness of the quarry. Several searches of the quarry found no trace of Ms Bernard.

The first search was called off in 2013, with media reporting the case as a “Cape mystery”. There was limited news of Ms Bernard’s story afterwards, until 2019, when a local Courier Mail journalist approached Sisters Inside CEO Debbie Kilroy. Together with Ms Bernard’s family, Ms Kilroy pushed for a coronial inquest into Ms Bernard’s disappearance, which began in 2021, and was supposed to be held in three stages – with the third part kicking off in February 2024.

At the inquest, Ms Bernard’s two mothers – Aunty Dellis and Aunty Edwina, as well as her uncle Teddy Bernard, attended, and laid fresh orange hibiscus next to two pictures of Ms Bernard – one picturing her with her grandmother, who had passed, and the other with her two children, who still long to know what happened to her. They sat through days of police testimony which delivered limited answers about what happened to Ms Bernard. For nearly a decade, the only story they heard about her disappearance was the one told by the man who last saw her alive, who claimed that she had run off into the quarry in the night, with no clothes, and only wrapped in a towel. This version of events was contested by the search and rescue expert on the stand, Snr Sgt Jim Whitehead, who said it was “unusual” for someone to walk somewhere if lost at night, and that usually they would sit still. There was limited visibility the night that Ms Bernard was disappeared.

The second part of the inquest ended in 2022 with Coroner Nerida Wilson ordering another search of an area known as the ‘Bend’ in Coen, a separate search area from the quarry. Coroner Wilson also ordered a review into the adequacy of the QPS’ investigation into Ms Bernard’s disappearance.

Ms Bernard’s disappearance was framed as a ‘mystery’ and a case of a woman ‘vanishing’ into thin air. There was suggestions that she had gone ‘walkabout’; a colonial term used to justify the continual disappearing of Aboriginal women. But Ms Bernard’s family have always fought for justice, for the truth to come out, for their loved one to return home, so her spirit can be at rest.

Today, Ms Bernard’s family released a statement saying that they “still grieve for her to come home”.

“This has been a long sad journey for us as a family. After nearly 11 years the police have finally charged the man who last saw our granddaughter, daughter, mother, sister, niece, aunty and cousin alive,” they said.

“When we reported our loved one missing to the police in 2013 they believed the man who is now charged with her murder and who told police that she ran off in the middle of the night for no reason.

“When we reported our loved one missing to the police in 2013 they believed the man who is now charged with her murder and who told police that she ran off in the middle of the night for no reason. The police never suspected his involvement in her death and in the disposal of her body which has never been found.

“Our women do not go missing and they don’t run off into the dark for no reason.”

The family said that the police investigation has been pressured by the family lawyer Ms Kilroy and the coroner to finally do their job and follow up their “failed investigation” in 2013.”