Hayley Dodd mother speaks about lifetime’s pain

“That’s her full lifetime, that’s how much we have been waiting for.”

Mandurah’s Hayley Dodd disappeared on July 29, 1999.

The teenager was last seen walking on her own on North West Road towards a friend’s farm near the Wheatbelt town of Badgingarra at 11.35am. 

She never arrived at the farm.

Hayley’s family received the call from the farm owner 24 hours later.

“I knew straight away something had happened; there’s no way she would not have turned up to where she said she was going,” Mrs Dodd said.

Mrs Dodd rang 000 and took a picture of her daughter to Mandurah’s police station.

She described the following hours as ‘sitting tight’ and waiting for the search to start two days later.

Hayley’s body was never found, and the Dodd family is still waiting for answers.

“That’s the number one thing for us; it is finding where Hayley is, everything else comes after that,” Mrs Dodd said.

“There’s nothing harder than never ever knowing.

“It’s just something you can’t get over, it’s torture.” she said.

The Dodd family might now be one step closer to finding answers about Hayley’s disappearance.

They will be facing accused Francis John Wark at a Perth court on September 28 for a committal hearing which will determine if there’s enough evidence against him to stand a trial.

Mr Wark was extradited from Queensland, where he was completing a 12-year sentence for the abduction and rape of a hitchhiker in 2007, to Western Australia in 2015.

He was charged with Hayley’s murder but pleaded not guilty in December 2015.

In the wake of the 17th anniversary of Hayley Dodd’s disappearance and National Missing Persons Week, Hayley mother Margaret has spoken out in criticism about the way authorities handled her daughter’s case.

According to Mrs Dodd, authorities failed to classify the case as a homicide during the crucial first 24 hours, listing Hayley’s case as a runaway, failing then to dispatch enough resources towards the search.

“They told me, and all of us, that the search for Hayley was the best in the world,” Mrs Dodd said.

“But certainly it wasn’t adequate, let alone the best in the world.

“That’s why we’ve had to wait all these years to find answers when we should’ve had the answers back in that day, had they resourced the investigation properly.

“[I feel] disgusted; insulted that they didn't think my daughter was worth the effort.” 

Mrs Dodd also said authorities had failed to review significant evidence collected shortly after Hayley’s disappearance, leading to a delay in pressing charges against potential perpetrators.

According to Mrs Dodd, they also failed to provide updated information about the state of affairs in the case to the family, forcing them to speak to the press to put pressure on the investigation.

Hayley’s mother has spent recent years fighting to change the state legislation so convicted murderers can’t have access to parole unless they give up the location of the body within a reasonable amount of time.

She is also considering starting a campaign to put in place a national DNA data bank.

On August 4, Zonta Club will be holding the 10th special service for missing persons at the Mandurah memorial that aims to honour the families of missing persons. 

The association created the memorial in Administration Park in 2006, after realising there were no places in Mandurah that remembered missing people.

Hayley’s was the first plaque to be placed at the memorial in July 28, 2006.