{"id":58367,"date":"2026-07-25T22:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/58367\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T22:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:12:13","slug":"family-pleads-for-information-to-help-solve-42-year-old-mystery-of-teenagers-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/58367\/","title":{"rendered":"Family pleads for information to help solve 42-year-old mystery of teenager’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph Yodgee didn’t know much about his older cousin Mandy when he was growing up.<\/p>\n

He has vivid memories of running around his aunt’s farm, unaware it was his cousin’s final resting place.<\/p>\n

Mandy Lee Yodgee’s ashes were buried beneath a water feature, designed with a figure of a marble woman dancing in the centre of the flowing stream, on the property in Clunes in regional Victoria.<\/p>\n

Joseph would not learn of his cousin’s 1984 murder until he was at primary school in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

His family gradually divulged fragments of information, and as time went on, his aunty Lois could no longer hide her pain from Joseph and his five siblings.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joseph Yodgee never got to meet his cousin, Mandy Lee, who died before he was born. (ABC News: Billy Draper)<\/p>\n

“I remember walking in on aunty Lo and she would be crying, and my father would be crying \u2026 you just don’t know at that age, and they don’t want to tell you,” Joseph told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“The pain, the answers that they never got, really weighed them down.<\/p>\n

“It does get too much. I did notice that the toll did get a lot for them \u2026 I could feel their pain.”<\/p>\n

Mandy was last seen alive on April 29, 1984, aged 17, when she was spotted drinking with a then-32-year-old Peter Anthony Wall at an old Prahran pub.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mandy Lee Yodgee died just a couple of days before her 18th birthday party. (Victoria Police)<\/p>\n

Mr Wall remains a key person of interest in Mandy’s murder, but has always denied involvement in her death.<\/p>\n

At the time of Mandy’s death, he told police she left his apartment later that night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Mandy vanished, missing her 18th birthday and the party Lois had planned.<\/p>\n

Days later, on May 8, two young children discovered Mandy’s body by the side of the road in Sassafras, in the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne’s outer south-east.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Mandy Lee Yodgee’s body was found near Mountain Highway nine days after she went missing. (Victoria Police)<\/p>\n

While the exact cause of Mandy’s death remains unclear, detectives believe she was murdered.<\/p>\n

A family’s fight for answers<\/p>\n

Joseph, now 37, was born several years after Mandy’s death, but has carried on his family’s fight for answers about who killed the bright and friendly teenager.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t get to meet her, but I feel like I did \u2026 I was robbed of having Mandy in my life today,” he says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mandy Lee Yodgee’s family is calling for a $1 million reward to be offered for information about her death. (Victoria Police)<\/p>\n

“She was a very loving, caring, bubbly young lady.<\/p>\n

“She was cheeky like the majority of us Yodgees.<\/p>\n

“She had a really bright future ahead of her.”<\/p>\n

Forty-two years after Mandy’s death, Joseph says time to find answers is running out.<\/p>\n

His father, Gary, and aunt Lois have died, and others who may have knowledge of the case are growing older.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Peter Wall is a key person of interest in Mandy Lee Yodgee’s murder but denies involvement. (Supplied: Herald Sun)<\/p>\n

At 74 years old, Mr Wall remains a key person of interest in Mandy’s murder.<\/p>\n

He has publicly denied killing her when asked, and has told the media he too wants answers about her death.<\/p>\n

“I can honestly swear on my mother’s life, my own life on it, my daughter’s life on it. No, I did not, no,” Mr Wall said in April.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what happened to her, but I should have walked her home or done something.”Hopes for a breakthrough<\/p>\n

Joseph is calling for a $1 million reward to be allocated to Mandy’s case in the hopes it prompts tip-offs leading to an arrest.<\/p>\n

“Someone out there knows something about Mandy,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Give yourself in, time’s up, do the right thing, come forward. This 17-year-old deserves justice and so does the family.”<\/p>\n

Do you have a story to share with the ABC? Contact Olivia Jenkins at jenkins.olivia@abc.net.au<\/a>, oliviajenkins98@protonmail.com<\/a> via Signal at @oliviajenkins.22<\/a>. If you’re sharing sensitive information, read our tips on how to contact us confidentially<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police have remained tight-lipped about various statements made by Mr Wall in the years since Mandy’s murder, but a spokeswoman said detectives wanted anyone with information to come forward.<\/p>\n

“Her death continues to be treated as suspicious, and detectives believe Mandy was murdered,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Over the past four decades, police have spoken a number of times to several people who remain of interest to police in relation to this matter.”<\/p>\n

Lois Yodgee sold her Clunes property when she grew too told to care for it any longer, taking Mandy’s ashes with her.<\/p>\n

While she and Joseph’s father died without closure, Joseph believes they can all one day rest in peace when the family gets the answers they need.<\/p>\n

“I truly do believe that this is extremely close to a breakthrough,” he said.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joseph Yodgee didn’t know much about his older cousin Mandy when he was growing up. He has vivid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61965,22,21,13500,11187,27234,61962,61961,1953,61964,61966,17724,1373,61963],"class_list":["post-58367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-61965","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-cold-case","tag-dandenong","tag-disappearance","tag-joseph-yodgee","tag-mandy-lee-yodgee","tag-missing-person","tag-prahan","tag-sassafras","tag-unsolved-murder","tag-victoria-police","tag-windsor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}