Australia REVELLE SABINE BALMAIN: Missing from Kingsford, NSW, Australia - 5 Nov 1994 - Age 22

1811DFNSW - Revelle Sabine Balmain​

Name: Revelle Sabine Balmain
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: November 5, 1994
Location Last Seen: Kingsford, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Physical Description​

Date of Birth: July 11, 1972
Age: 22 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

Identifiers​

Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown

Clothing & Personal Items​

Clothing: Three-quarter length, linen, wrap around green or beige skirt. Blue/grey t-shirt. Cream colored, button down cardigan. High cork platform shell shoes. She had a large, blue, stoned carved necklace, almost see-through in some pieces and a small, three-diamond gold ring. She carried two bags, one a backpack and the other over the shoulder.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance​

Revelle was last seen by an acquaintance who said he dropped her off at the Red Tomato Inn at Kingsford at approximately 19.00 on 5 November 1994.

She was due to meet her mother at Newcastle on 6 November 1994, to say goodbye before leaving for Brisbane, Queensland, for a two week dance rehearsal, before going to a job in Japan, on a 6 month dance contract.

She never caught her train and failed to arrive.

She was due to meet a girlfriend on Saturday evening November 5, 1994 but failed to keep this appointment. Later that evening she was to meet her boyfriend, but failed to keep this appointment as well. Her girlfriend last spoke to her by phone at 19:15. A man told Police she was driven from premises at Kingsford, Sydney to the Red Tomato Inn at 19.00. No one from the Inn ever saw her .

Her mother reported her as missing right away. The following day, Revelle's bag, shoes, make up, diary, credit cards and the keys to her flat were found scattered around a Kingsford suburb. Subsequent checks have found no witnesses seeing her enter the Red Tomato Inn . She worked as a professional dancer (classical, tap and jazz) and model at the time. Se was also working as an escort to earn some quick money. It was later revealed that Balmain had gone to the Kingsford house, on McNair Avenue, to visit a client. The client denied he was involved in Ms Balmain's disappearance, telling police and an inquiry he had dropped her at the nearby pub and then gone home, watched television and fallen asleep. Balmain had traveled extensively through Europe, England and America at an early age. Shortly before her disappearance, she had bleached her hair totally white for a modeling shoot for a Sydney magazine. Just three days before her disappearance, she had returned it to her normal color, which was a sandy blonde. Foul play is suspected.

Investigating Agency(s)​

Agency Name: National Missing Persons Unit
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 1800 000 634
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: N/A

Agency Name: Australian Federal Police
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: N/A
Agency E-Mail: missing@afp.gov.au
Agency Case Number: N/A

Information Source(s)​

National Missing Person's Unit of the Australian Federal Police​

Orato​

The Daily Telegraph​

1811DFNSW - Revelle Sabine Balmain

MEDIA - REVELLE SABINE BALMAIN: Missing from Kingsford, NSW, Australia since 5 Nov 1994 - Age 22

 

[kdg411]

Revelle Sabine BALMAIN

New lead in Revelle Balmain murder​

Dylan Welch Police Reporter - SMH
July 31, 2008

FORENSIC evidence has added weight to a police theory that the model Revelle Balmain was murdered at a house in Kingsford, sparking renewed interest in her 1994 disappearance.

The Commander of the Homicide Squad, Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford, said the cold case unit, using advances in forensic procedures, had gathered new evidence from a Kingsford house where Ms Balmain, 22, was allegedly last seen.

Two days after Ms Balmain's disappearance on November 5, a cork-heeled platform shoe, her cane make-up bag, her diary and the keys to her Bellevue Hill unit were found scattered in four streets in the Kingsford area.

It was later revealed that Ms Balmain had been working as a sex worker at two high-end Sydney escort agencies, and she had gone to the Kingsford house, on McNair Avenue, to visit a client, Gavin Owen Samer.

A coronial inquiry in 1998 and 1999 identified Mr Samer as the main person of interest. The then deputy state coroner, John Abernathy, presided over the inquiry and identified Mr Samer as a suspect but fell short of recommending charges.

"While Mr Samer certainly had the opportunity to kill Ms Balmain, and rightly in my view is the main person of interest to police, there is no plausible motive proved," he told the inquiry.

Mr Samer denied he was involved in Ms Balmain's disappearance, telling police and the inquiry he had dropped her at a nearby pub and then gone home, watched television and fallen asleep.

The inquiry also canvassed suggestions that Ms Balmain might have been murdered by the owner of Select Companions - an escort agency she had worked for for six weeks.

The owner, Zoran Stanojevic, provided contradictory evidence to police and the inquiry about his whereabouts on the day she disappeared, but consistently denied he had anything to do with her disappearance.

The inquiry heard that a wealthy commodities trader and former client of Ms Balmain, Mark Coulton, had told a friend that Ms Balmain had been murdered by the agency for "moonlighting", or doing extra sex work for cash on the side.

"She's 10-foot under and no-one will find her body," he was alleged to have told a friend. Mr Coulton later denied under oath he had ever made the statement.

Superintendent Beresford yesterday confirmed that the same two men were still the only two suspects in the alleged murder.

Ms Balmain's case is the second in two days to get a boost from a recently formed "cold case" homicide team. On Tuesday police said they believed they knew what had happened to Trudie Adams, who disappeared from the northern beaches in 1987, aged 18.

Both cases have attracted a $250,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.

much more at link

 

[Summer_Breeze]

My sister vanished 29 years ago…she kept a dark secret & cops missed clues

THE sister of a model who vanished almost 30 years ago fears her case could have been solved if she hadn’t been “labelled as an escort”. Revelle Balmain, 22, was on the cusp of em…

www.thesun.ie

• Katie Davis
• Published: 8:49, 14 Oct 2023
• Updated: 10:02, 14 Oct 2023

THE sister of a model who vanished almost 30 years ago fears her case could have been solved if she hadn't been "labelled as an escort".

Revelle Balmain, 22, was on the cusp of embarking on a dance tour in Japan when the blonde beauty disappeared in Sydney, Australia.

It sparked a three-decade-long mystery that has baffled detectives and plagued her family - with police still no closer to uncovering the truth.

Although her body has never been found and no charges laid, cops are certain she was murdered.

Revelle's heartbroken sister Suellen Simpson has now opened up to The Sun about the devastating impact her disappearance continues to have on her family.

Her parents Jan and Ivor died without ever knowing what happened to their precious daughter.

The couple had already suffered a shattering tragedy years earlier when Revelle, then aged just four, found her baby brother Matthew dead in a pool.

Suellen said: "It destroyed my parents. How does anyone cope with losing a child to murder and never ever knowing why?

"There were no reasons behind it, it is the worst and nothing has changed since then.

"It was heartbreaking for them, we lost Matthew our brother to drowning and then Revelle to murder.

"I felt like someone had cut out a piece of my heart - both for the loss that our parents suffered and for myself."

After making her debut on the cover of fashion magazine Oyster, it seemed Revelle had the world at her feet.

But after she vanished, her friends and family learnt of her secret double life in the seedy world of prostitution.

On the evening she disappeared on November 5, 1994, Revelle met with a client, keen surfer Gavin Samer.


She was supposed to meet her friends after, yet never showed up.

Samer, then 26, claimed he dropped Revelle at a nearby pub - but he quickly became shrouded in suspicion.

Then, after several of Revelle's belongings were found in the streets close to Samer's house, he became prime suspect.

One of the dancer's cork-heeled platforms was found in a bin, her diary in a gutter, and her keys and make-up bag on a roadside.

Tragically, her passport and airline ticket to Japan sat packed in a bag at her home, never to be used.

Revelle had intended for Samer to be one of her final clients before she began on a new life - having gone into escorting to make quick cash in a bid to pursue her dreams.

Suellen added: "She was in a hurry to grow up and become an adult, even when she was very young she was quite mature.

"Everything in life was important to her, friends and family, but dance was her main focus.

"Modelling came along at the 11th hour, but sadly she never had much of a chance to fulfil that dream.


"We had previously talked about her escorting, but I didn't know to what extent she was involved.

"That secret was kept from me, and I don't believe she knew or realised the danger she was in before she disappeared."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

More at link. ~Summer

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

'High-pitched female scream' heard on night 22-year-old model went missing, inquest hears

New evidence is set to be heard at an inquest into the 1994 disappearance and presumed death of Sydney escort, model and dancer Revelle Balmain.

www.abc.net.au

Inquest into disappearance of model, dancer and escort Revelle Balmain underway in Sydney​

An inquest into the 1994 disappearance of Revelle Balmain has been told a witness heard a high-pitched scream and screeching tyres on the night the Sydney woman went missing.

Ms Balmain, a 22-year-old model and dancer originally from Port Stephens, has not been seen since November 5, 1994.

An inquest in 1999 found she died at the hands of a person or persons unknown to her.

That inquiry was told that on the afternoon prior to her disappearance she had been driven to the Red Tomato Inn at Kingsford at 7pm.

On Monday, in his opening address for the second inquest, counsel assisting Matthew Johnston SC said Ms Balmain was working as an escort, using the alias Misha, but had plans to pursue dancing overseas.

"November 5, 1994 was the last night she intended to work before travelling overseas to Japan," Mr Johnston said.

"There was also evidence she wanted to catch up with friends before heading overseas."

Mr Johnston told the inquest the alarm was raised when she failed to meet up with her mother at Newcastle train station as planned the next day.

"She had been due to meet her mother in Newcastle at 11am but did not arrive," he said.

A $1 million reward was offered in 2022, which coincided with a new investigation.

Deputy State Coroner Joan Baptie was told the officer in charge of that probe would provide an updated statement to the inquest.

Mr Johnston said as a result of his inquiries, the inquest "would examine key witnesses, including a number of witnesses who have not been examined".

The counsel assisting said one witness heard a commotion on the night Ms Balmain vanished into the night.

"She heard a loud skid of brakes from a car, followed by ethnic male voices arguing," Mr Johnston said.

"It was followed by a short, sharp and high-pitched female scream.

"She saw a dark-coloured Holden Commodore and estimated there was a driver and passenger in front and three to four people in [the] back seat.

"She said another car was travelling at the same speed beside the Commodore.

"The next morning she and her daughter were walking and saw skid marks, a clog-style platform shoe and a washed denim skirt."

He said other witnesses found a pager, a Medicare card and a bank card, and that a child found a second clog shoe.

Mr Johnston said at the time she vanished, Ms Balmain had debts and had allegedly "moonlighted" while out on escort jobs, keeping some money for herself.

He said it must be accepted Revelle Balmain was dead, but the cause of death and who may have been involved was unknown.

Inquest hears fresh evidence over model's 1994 disappearance

Balmain was working as a model and escort when she was last seen in Sydney's eastern suburbs on November 5,...

www.9news.com.au

Inquest hears fresh evidence in 30-year mystery of Revelle Balmain's disappearance​

Friends of Revelle Balmain had intended to celebrate the 22-year-old's life-changing decision to move to a new country on the night she disappeared 30 years ago.

Suellen Simpson, a sister searching for answers, watched on at the Lidcombe Coroner's Court on Tuesday as friends of Balmain recounted their final conversations on the day she went missing.

Balmain was working as a model and escort when she was last seen in Sydney's eastern suburbs on November 5, 1994.

She had attended a booking with client Gavin Samers in Kingsford before he dropped her at a hotel nearby about 7pm.

It was meant to be one of her last jobs as an escort before flying to Japan to work as a dancer.

A conversation over the phone wasn't supposed to be the last time Balmain would speak to her friends, the court was told.

Plans to farewell Balmain had fallen through when the aspiring dancer failed to turn up for drinks with friends that night, a companion who cannot be named for legal reasons, said.

The two had worked together at an escort agency, Select Companions, owned and operated by Jane King and Zoran Stenojevic.

The friend said she had disliked Stenojevic, who she believed was infatuated with Balmain.

Stenojevic was known by a number of the escorts as a driver to and from their bookings, the court heard multiple witnesses say.

The friend said her relationship with the owners was rocky at best, describing Stenojevic's behaviour as aggressive at times.

When it came to Balmain, the friend said he "was all over her", which she described as meaning he had an intimate "look in his eyes" whenever he was around her.

"Zoran treated Revelle differently ... he was much friendlier (to her)," the friend said.

Another witness recalled having plans to see Balmain, who had recently begun dating another friend, the same night she disappeared.

A dark-coloured Holden Commodore was reportedly seen in the Kingsford area on the Saturday evening, with a loud skid and the sound of a woman's scream heard before the car carrying multiple people sped off.

A previous inquest in 1999 found Revelle had died at the hands of a person or persons unknown and the matter was referred to the Unsolved Homicide Unit.

A fresh investigation between 2007 and 2009 followed by a formal review in 2020 failed to produce any compelling evidence in the case.

Ms Balmain was in debt to the escort agency at the time of her death as well as engaging clients outside of the agency's knowledge, known as moonlighting.

King and Stenojevic are scheduled to give evidence later in the inquest before Coroner Joan Baptie.