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What Ever Happened to Juanita Nielsen?

The disappearance of a young Sydney publisher almost 30 years ago remains one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries. On 4 July 1975 a wealthy heiress who had been at the forefront of a crusade against redevelopment of Victoria Street in Sydney’s redlight Kings Cross district, went to an appointment at a Kings Cross nightclub and then disappeared. Her name was Juanita Nielsen.

What nobody in the know doubts is that Juanita is dead and somebody murdered her. A coronial inquiry looked long and hard at her disappearance. What it came up with was that many people wanted Juanita Nielsen dead for a variety of reasons. Her boyfriend told the inquiry how Ms Nielsen had told him of numerous telephone threats. He said Juanita carried cassette tapes with her which she had said could ‘lift the lid’ off an investigation she was working on and was about to expose.

It was no secret that that Juanita Nielsen’s investigation was the redevelopment of Victoria Street, Kings Cross, where big bucks and even bigger profits were involved.

Juanita’s boyfriend was later threatened by an anonymous caller who said: ‘Juanita has been killed … it was an accident. Back off, or accidents can happen to other people.’

Juanita’s last appointment before her disappearance was with a man called Edward Trigg, then a manager of the Carousel Nightclub in Kings Cross – a club owned by Abe Saffron and managed by James Anderson.

She apparently turned up to the meeting – allegedly to sign the nightclub up for some advertising in her local newspaper NOW – and from there she disappeared. Her black handbag and personal effects were found on a freeway in Western Sydney.

Two and a half years after Juanita’s disappearance, Trigg and two others were arrested and charged with conspiring to abduct her. Trigg pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in jail. Six years later a Kings Cross barman, Shayne Martin-Simmonds was convicted of attempting to abduct her and was sentenced to two years in prison. Lloyd Marshall, then a PR man for the Carousel Nightclub, was acquitted of the same charge.

But those in the know will tell you that the true story of the disappearance of Juanita Nielsen is that she was murdered in cold blood and her body was buried in the foundations of one of the many building sites she campaigned so vigorously against.

The coronial inquiry heard how Juanita Nielsen, her newspaper and her anti-redevelopment campaigns in Kings Cross – especially Victoria Street – were a pain in the backside for vice crime bosses and developers wanting to expand and they had combined their resources to get rid of her.

One insider was quoted as saying: ‘It’s all bloody politics, anyway. It’s all about crooked cops, dirty politics and one big cover up. The guy who is benefiting from this is a politician who made megabucks.’