Peta Weber declared dead, 26 years after going missing from the Gap, Albany, but cause of death unknown

A coronial inquest into the disappearance of Peta Simone Weber over 25 years ago has found that her controlling husband was somehow involved in her death but has stopped short of determining a cause. Suspicions regarding the involvement of Ms Weber’s husband Richard have plagued the unsolved case for nearly three decades. At the inquest in August, in which senior police officials who had worked the case shared their strong belief that Mr Weber had murdered her, it seemed that Deputy State Coroner Sarah Linton might reach a similar conclusion. However, in her report on Wednesday, Ms Linton said she was unable to confirm the cause of death, leaving it open as to whether the mother of two died by accident or foul play. She did find that Mr Weber was somehow involved and that he disposed of her body. She also debunked his version of events on the day of Ms Weber’s disappearance, an account that he maintained until his suicide on June 29, 2000 — about a week after the third anniversary of Ms Weber’s death. “There is no evidence, other than Richard’s word, to support the conclusion Peta was even at the Gap that morning,” she said. “As to what happened, to Peta, I am satisfied that Richard was involved in her death in some way and he disposed of her body in an unknown manner and place.” In her findings, Ms Linton describes Ms Weber as a “loving mother to two young children” who would not have stayed away from her children for so many years. The day of her disappearance It was a typical day in Albany on the morning of Ms Weber’s disappearance on June 22, 1997 — windy, rainy, and drizzly. Mr Weber told police that he and Ms Weber had driven to the Gap to go fishing and shortly after arriving, Ms Weber went to use the bathroom but never returned. He reported her missing about half an hour later, making him the last person to see his wife alive. A full-scale land and sea rescue was launched in the area around The Gap and the water below but no sign of Ms Weber was ever found. No evidence was found that Ms Weber died by suicide or walked away from her life. Strong suspicions Police were suspicious from the start with multiple eyewitness accounts poking holes in Mr Weber’s version of events, which he maintained until his suicide in 2000. In an interview with police on June 23, 1997, Mr Weber denied murdering Ms Weber and played off trouble in his marriage, including rumours of his wife’s infidelity. Commander Darren Seivwright, who was a Det-Sen. Const. with Albany Detectives at the time, gave evidence at the inquest, saying he ‘felt strongly” that Ms Weber had met foul play at the hands of her husband, calling Mr Weber’s account a ‘red herring’ to distract police. Commander Seivwright said in his experience of missing person cases in Albany where someone had fallen in or drowned, within days their body always resurfaced or was recovered. He also received an anonymous call within hours of her disappearance from a woman who said “There is no way she fell out there. She knows Albany too well. I reckon he pushed her”. Eyewitness accounts Friends, family, and colleagues also cast doubt on Mr Weber’s account with the coronial inquest bringing forward new witnesses to the case. In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Ms Weber told friends she was considering leaving her husband and that he had tried to poison her with rat poison. Many of those close to Ms Weber said they were surprised by Mr Weber’s account because his wife did not like fishing or the Gap and could not swim. Mr Weber was also described as emotionally and physically abusive to his wife and her young son by multiple people, including Kerrillea Ryde who he started dating within months of Ms Weber’s disappearance. Ms Ryde provided evidence to the inquest, stating that Mr Weber quickly “became very controlling”, dictating who she could see, what she could wear, and their finances. She said that although he never hit her, he would push her up against the bed or a wall and prevent her from leaving. On June 20, 2000, she told him she was leaving and a week later he shot himself in the head, which Ms Ryde discovered when she found his body after she came by the home to pick up her things. The case goes cold In October 1998, the Perth-based homicide squad took over the investigation, with Det-Sen. Const. Swannel recommending a covert operation, believing that Richard had a strong motive to murder Peta. Covert surveillance began in February 2000 but a plan to develop an undercover strategy was scuppered when Mr Weber took his own life on June 29, 2000. The case was reviewed in December 2015, with the state crime operations squad hoping that advances in technology might uncover new evidence along with new witnesses. Ms Weber’s son John Hindge, who was just seven years old at the time of his mother’s disappearance, told police his stepfather was mentally and physically abusive to him from the age of about four or five, which continued for four years after his mother’s disappearance until he left to live with his own father. Mr Hindge said his stepfather would tell him awful things about his mother including that he had kicked her off the Gap, put her body in acid or that she was “out at the farm”. Richard’s family farm in Narrikup was searched in 2016 but nothing was found, the main area of interest having been turned into a blue gum plantation and then bulldozed and cleared. 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