Last week the NSW Coroner Derek Lee found the 12-year-old had died by homicide “on or about” the morning of July 27, 1988, shortly after waving goodbye to her mother and walking to school.
Mr Lee described Quanne as enjoying “a close relationship with her loving family” and said she also had numerous school friends, who knew her to be “a reliable and true friend”.
“Quanne’s separation from her family in such sudden, unexpected and tragic circumstances is truly heartbreaking,” he said
He referred the case back to the NSW Police’s Unsolved Homicide Team, with Detective Inspector Andrew Mackay saying they will “never give up” the search.
“We’re committed to the Diec family and we’re seeking to provide them the answers that they so dearly need,” he said.
Part of the inquest also looked into the actions of Vinzent Tarantino who went to police in July 1999, telling them he “wanted to get something off his chest” before retracting his statement.
In 2016, Mr Tarantino went to police again, telling them he had killed Quanne and he was subsequently charged with her murder but in September 2019 he told a court he had made it all up to get police protection after fearing reprisals from a bikie gang, and after a jury trial he was found not guilty of murder.
While the Diec family were not in court for Mr Lee’s findings, he extended his condolences to her parents Anne and Sam and sisters Tina and Sunny, with the hope that further information will one day allow them to find “some measure of solace from such a tragic and devastating event.”
