Coroner refers Rahma El-Dennaoui's disappearance back to homicide police "....the child did not "simply vanish into thin air"
The Daily Telegraph
November 15, 2012
A CORONER has referred the disappearance of Rahma El-Dennaoui back to homicide police - declaring the child did not "simply vanish into thin air".
Deputy State Coroner Sharon Freund delivered her findings this morning following a long-running inquest into the toddler's disappearance.
She said there was "no conclusive evidence" to show the 20-month-old's family staged her kidnapping more than seven years ago, but there were a number of "troubling" aspects to their versions of events.
Telephone intercepts of the family's calls made during the inquest revealed "puzzling" behaviour, which the coroner said was inconsistent with what would be expected from a grieving family.
"In particular, the joking and laughing by Rahma's parents with third parties about the kidnapping and the splitting of the reward money, the specific references to avoiding talking about the inquest on the telephone and actually talking in code," she said.
Ms Freund said she couldn't support the family's calls that she find an unknown person had abducted Rahma and that the girl's relatives had no involvement in the disappearance.
But she said a number of other possibilities remained open, including that a stranger kidnapped the child to raise as their own or a criminal took her with intent to hurt the young girl.
"Rahma El-Dennaoui did not simply vanish into thin air. Unfortunately, this inquest was unable to narrow the reasons as to why and how she came to disappear."
Rahma's father Hosayn El-Dennaoui told the inquest he last saw his daughter about 2am on November 10, 2005, when she was put in a bed she shared with two older sisters. Her siblings woke to find her gone and a large hole cut in the fly screen above her bed.
The inquest heard that police now believe she probably died accidentally at home before her family disposed of the body in an unknown location.
Outside the court, Mr El-Dennaoui said last Saturday was the seven-year anniversary of his daughter's disappearance and her family still wanted to find out what happened to her.
"We would like to know - we were not involved, me and my wife, we haven't done anything to Rahma," he said.
Detective-Sergeant Nick Sedgwick, who led the police investigation into the disappearance, said enquiries into the incident had been thorough and would continue after the inquest.
"There is a frustration with a long investigation like this, but the police service won't stop until we know what happened to Rahma," he said.
In her findings, Ms Freund said the police investigation into one potential abductor - a suspected pedophile who lived close to the El-Dennaoui home - had a "number of shortcomings and issues".
There was an 18-month delay before the man's caravan, where police believed the toddler may have been taken, was forensically examined, the inquest heard.
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