Status: Suspected Murder
Reward: $100,000.
Sex: Female
Year of Birth: 1982
At Time of Disappearance on 5 June 2002
Age: 19
Height: 160.0 Build: Thin
Hair Colour: Brown
Eye Colour: Green/Hazel
Complexion: Fair / Caucasian
Circumstances: Amber was last seen at Campbelltown. Ms Haigh was reported missing on 19 June, 2002 by a married couple who she had been living with in the rural town of Kingsvale in southern NSW. The couple told police that they dropped Ms Haigh off at the Campbelltown railway station on 5 June, 2002 and never heard from her again.
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Sick 'jokes' around missing girl: courtJun 23 2011 By ninemsn staff
At one point the coroner became enraged and castigated Mr Blundell, telling him "It's not a joke.... it's not funny."
Only five months before she was reported missing, Ms Haigh, who experts said had the mental age of a ten-year-old, gave birth to Robert Geeve’s baby. It has been alleged she was acting as a surrogate mother for the couple.David Williams, a former abattoir worker, told the inquest he had heard rumours Ms Haigh’s body was "hidden in grapevines".
But he added he was drunk and stoned at the time and the conversation had started as a "practical joke."
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Teen missing since 2002 'used as surrogate mother'
AMBER Haigh and Robert Geeves were a most unlikely couple.
When Ms Haigh moved in to his NSW farmhouse in 2001, she was just 18, and he, a married father of one, was in his early 40s.
Stranger still, his wife, Anne, approved of the union and remained under the same roof with her husband and his new girlfriend in the marital property near Young, in southern NSW.
Nine months after moving in with the Geeves, Ms Haigh, who had a mild intellectual disability, was pregnant. And six months after giving birth to a baby boy, she disappeared and has not been seen since. Her family and the police accept she is almost certainly dead.
Almost nine years to the day since Ms Haigh was last seen on June 5, 2002 -- when the Geeves say they dropped her off at Campbelltown train station in Sydney's southwest -- her family and Mr Geeves yesterday sat just metres apart in Parramatta Local Court on the first day of the inquest into the young mother's disappearance. It is the belief of the family and the police that the Geeves used Ms Haigh as a surrogate mother. Mrs Geeves had lost a baby girl not long before Ms Haigh moved in with them and was thought to be unable to conceive another child.
The doona was taken from the bedroom once shared by Ms Haigh and Mr Geeves. A further police raid of the property in 2005 found similar blood samples on the carpet. Neither Mr Geeves, nor Mrs Geeves -- who was too sick to attend yesterday's inquest -- have been charged with any crime relating to the disappearance of Ms Haigh.
The court was told Mr Geeves had been acquitted of the murder of another girlfriend, 29-year-old Janelle Goodwin, whose naked body -- tied with twine from her ankles to her neck -- was found at the Geeves farmhouse in June 1993.
Ms Goodwin had moved in with Mr Geeves and his wife in the early 1990s, and became pregnant with his child. But on the night of June 20, 1993, she died from a bullet wound to her head. Mr Geeves told police that during a drunken argument, Ms Goodwin "introduced" a firearm to the dispute and was shot in the struggle.
In his opening remarks yesterday, counsel assisting the Coroner, Peter Hamill, said Ms Haigh's family members would tell the inquest that Amber had feared she would be "discarded" by the Geeves after she gave birth.
Ms Haigh's aunt, Patricia Haigh, told the inquest her niece had confided to her that she had been "raped and videotaped" by Mr Geeves and he and his wife had used the existence of the tapes to blackmail the teenager into promising to hand over the baby to them when it was born.
The inquest continues.
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Baby 'taken', then mother vanished
Malcolm Brown June 21, 2011 SMH
A COUPLE who gave accommodation to a teenage girl in Kingsvale, near Young in southern NSW, might have agreed that the man should make the girl pregnant and they would then take the baby, Parramatta Coroner's Court heard yesterday.
The Deputy State Coroner, Scott Mitchell, inquiring into the disappearance of Amber Michelle Haigh in June 2002, heard that Anne Geeves, whose husband Robert Geeves made the girl pregnant, had lost a baby of her own and could not conceive again.
Peter Hamill, SC, counsel assist-ing the inquiry, said Amber, 19, gave birth to a baby boy in January, 2002. On June 5 of that year, Robert and Anne Geeves, on their later account to police, had taken Amber to Campbelltown railway station, where she was to catch a train to Mount Druitt to visit her father. She was never seen again. Robert and Anne Geeves reported her missing on June 19, 2002.
Amber, who suffered from epilepsy and had a mental disability, had formed a relationship with Robbie Geeves, son of Robert and Anne Geeves, but Robert Geeves had become interested in her as well and had asked her to stay with them.
Sergeant Andrew Cochrane, who investigated the disappearance, said Mr and Mrs Geeves had been suspects from the outset of the inquiry. He said he had taken note of the fact that Mr Geeves had been tried and acquitted of the murder of another girl in 2006 and he had also been acquitted of the abduction and sexual assault of a teenage girl in 1986.
Patricia Haigh, an aunt of Amber, said her niece had told her about terrible abuse, including rape, she had suffered at the hands of Robert and Anne Geeves.
''She [told me that] she had been tied to a bed and his wife took a video about it and they held that against her so she would not tell anybody anything otherwise they would use it against her,'' Ms Haigh said.
''Amber told me that Mrs Geeves had had a death of her own child, she wanted to have another baby, she could not fall pregnant, and they had held on to Amber so they could get the baby off her.''
The hearing resumes today.
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Date set for Amber Haigh inquest
ABC Australia Riverina Online: September 22, 2010
Amber Michelle Haigh, 19, from Kingsvale, had been staying with a couple in Sydney who reported her disappearance on June 19, 2002.
An inquest has been set down for five days at Parramatta starting on June 20 next year before deputy state coroner Scott Mitchell.
Local police have said they have provided details of Ms Haigh's missing person case to Strikeforce Hixson which is investigating the discovery of bones in the Belanglo State Forest.
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Reward of $100,000 to solve disappearance of Amber HaighNSW Police Force Missing Persons
A $100,000 reward is on offer to solve the mysterious disappearance and suspected death of 19 year old Amber Haigh in 2002.
It is hoped the reward will prompt someone to come forward with new information.
Ms Haigh was reported missing on 19 June, 2002 by a married couple who she had been living with in the rural town of Kingsvale in southern NSW.
The couple told police that they dropped Ms Haigh off at the Campbelltown railway station on 5 June, 2002 and never heard from her again.
Police believe that Ms Haigh met with foul play, but they have been unable to find enough evidence to prosecute anyone over her dissappearance.
Despite extensive searches of the Kingsvale area, she is yet to be found.
Someone within the tight-knit community of Kingsvale could hold the key to solving the mysterious disappearance.
The smallest piece of information may allow police to close this case.
Strike Force Villamar was set up to investigate the case, but police say they have exhausted all avenues of enquiry.
There are still many unanswered questions in the Amber Haigh case and it is only with help from the public that police can expect a breakthrough.
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