About the Authors

Denise Hofman is a former teacher and community advocate for the protection of Aboriginal heritage and culture, focusing on the degradation of Sydney’s Hawkesbury Nepean River system, which was under threat from the state government’s North West Sector Housing Development. It was during this period in the early 1990s that she met Michael Guider, an amateur archaeologist, and together they recorded numerous Aboriginal sites. After Guider was charged with child sexual assault in 1996, Denise assisted police with their investigation into Samantha Knight’s disappearance. Denise is married with five children and lives in Sydney.

 

John Kidman has spent almost 20 years as a Sydney print journalist. After leaving an on-air job in country radio in 1994 he worked with Australian Associated Press for seven years, specialising in the police round. He tried his hand as a water polo writer during the Sydney Olympic Games before moving to the Sun-Herald as the paper’s police reporter. For the next eight years he worked on some of Sydney’s biggest crime stories, winning recognition as a Walkley Awards finalist. In 2012, he returned to AAP as part of their production team. John is married with four children.