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Christine Schmidt Biography & Facts

The Wanda Beach Murders, also known simply as "Wanda", were the unsolved murders of Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock at Wanda Beach near Cronulla in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on 11 January 1965. The victims, both aged 15, were best friends and neighbours from the suburb of West Ryde, and their partially buried bodies were discovered the next day. The brutal nature of the slayings and the fact that they occurred on a deserted, windswept beach brought massive publicity to the case. By April 1966, police had interviewed some 7,000 people, making it the largest investigation in Australian history. It remains one of the most infamous unsolved Australian murder cases of the 1960s, and New South Wales' oldest unsolved homicide case. The victims Marianne Schmidt had arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, with her family from West Germany in September 1958. At the time, the Schmidt family consisted of parents Helmut and Elisabeth; and Marianne and her siblings: Helmut Jr., Hans, Peter, Trixie, and Wolfgang. Another child, Norbert, was born the following year. After arriving in Australia, the Schmidt family lived in a migrant hostel in Unanderra, New South Wales, before settling in Temora. In 1963, Helmut moved the family to the Sydney area after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, residing in a home in West Ryde. Helmut passed away the following year.Marianne's next-door neighbour was Christine Sharrock, who lived with her grandparents Jim and Jeanette Taig. Sharrock's father had died in 1953; her mother Beryl remarried and was living in the north-western Sydney suburb of Seven Hills. Sharrock moved in with her grandparents by choice and when the Schmidts arrived next-door, she developed a strong friendship with Marianne, who was of the same age. It is not known why Sharrock preferred to live with her grandparents and not her mother and stepfather. Disappearance On 1 January 1965, at the height of the surf music era, Sharrock and Schmidt visited the beach at Cronulla, which had been a popular picnic spot for the Schmidt family. Diary entries, read after the murders, indicated that the girls had kissed some boys at the beach this day. The following day, the Schmidt children visited Cronulla again without Sharrock. Meanwhile, Schmidt's mother had been admitted to a hospital for a major operation, leaving Helmut Jr. and Marianne in charge of the household. On Saturday 9 January, Schmidt and Sharrock asked Schmidt's mother (who was still hospitalised) if they could take the younger children to Cronulla the next day and were given permission; however, rain prevented the trip.On Monday 11 January, accompanied by Schmidt's four youngest siblings, the girls again set off by train for Cronulla railway station after transferring at Redfern. They arrived at about 11:00 am, but it was very windy and the beach was closed. The group then walked down to the southern end of the beach and sheltered among the rocks. Eight-year-old Wolfgang still wanted to swim, so Schmidt went with him to a shallow part of the surf away from the rocks. After they returned to the group, they had a picnic. At some point during this time, Sharrock left the others and went off by herself.When Sharrock returned to the group, they decided to go for a walk into the sand-hills behind Wanda Beach. Around 1:00 pm, the group had reached a point around 400 metres (430 yards) beyond the Wanda Surf Club. They stopped to take shelter behind a sand-hill as the younger children were complaining about the conditions. Schmidt told her younger siblings that she and Sharrock would return to the rocky area at the south end of the beach where they had hidden their bags, then return to fetch the children and head home. Instead, however, the girls continued into the sand-hills. When Peter told them they were going the wrong way, they laughed at him and walked on.The Schmidt children remained waiting behind the sand-hill until 5:00 pm, at which time they returned to collect their bags (including Schmidt and Sharrock's purses) and went home on the last train, arriving home around 8:00 pm. Schmidt and Sharrock were reported missing at 8:30 pm by Sharrock's grandmother.The next morning, on Tuesday 12 January, Peter Smith was taking three young nephews for a walk through the Wanda Beach sand-hills. Some distance north of the Wanda Surf Club, he discovered what appeared to be a store mannequin buried face-down in the sand. He brushed away sand from the head and realised that it was a body, and the police were called from the surf club. At this point, Smith believed he had found only one body. Investigation When the murder scene was examined, Schmidt was found lying on her right side with her left leg bent. Sharrock was face down, her head against the sole of Schmidt's left foot. Both had scratch marks on their faces. From a 34 metre (37 yard) long drag mark leading to the scene, police determined that Sharrock had fled, possibly while Schmidt was dying, only to have been caught, incapacitated and dragged back to the body of her friend. An intensive search was undertaken to find the murder weapons, a long knife and some sort of blunt instrument, but they were never found. Tonnes of sand from around the murder scene were sifted through and various items were found, including a blood-stained knife blade, but police were unable to link it to the murders.The autopsy for Sharrock found a BAC of 0.015, but alcohol was not found in Schmidt's autopsy. It was also discovered that Sharrock had consumed food (cabbage and celery – i.e. possibly a Chiko Roll) that was different from the rest of the party; it is suspected this occurred while she was alone. Sharrock's skull had been fractured by a blow to the back of the head and she had been stabbed fourteen times. Schmidt's throat had been deeply slashed and she had been stabbed six times. Their underwear had been cut, and attempts had been made to rape both girls. Semen was found on both girls but the autopsy showed that their hymens were intact. Schmidt's brother Hans had viewed photos of her body and said, "She'd been stabbed twenty-five to thirty times. She'd almost been decapitated because her throat had been cut so viciously."It was also during Sharrock's absence that Wolfgang noticed a teenage boy hunting crabs. Later, he claimed to have seen the same boy twice more, once in the company of his sister and Sharrock and again sometime much later walking alone. There has been doubt about his description of this person, as Wolfgang's testimony over time variously suggested he had a homemade speargun, a fishing knife or both. The last official sighting of the girls was around 12:45 by local fireman Dennis Dostine, who was walking in the area with his son and saw the girls walking about 730 metres (800 yards) north of the surf club. Dostine told police that they seemed to be hurrying, and one of the girls often looked behind her as if they were being followed. He did not see anybody el.... Discover the Christine Schmidt popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Christine Schmidt books.