DESCRIPTION
• 17 years of age at time of disappearance.
• Light skinned.
• 158cm tall.
• Slim build.
• Ginger hair.
• Brown eyes.
• Last seen wearing long sleeved green top, long blue trousers, brown platform shoes and carrying a tan shoulder bag.
QUICK CASE FACTS:
- Yvonne and Raelene were cousins and very good friends.
- Attended the Oxford Hotel in Leederville on Sunday 7 April 1974.
- Police believe they caught a bus to The White Sands Tavern in Scarborough.
- Socialised with five men aged in their early twenties, two men left before closing time.
- At closing time the remaining three men left the Tavern in company with Yvonne and Raelene.
- Yvonne and Raelene were seen talking with the three men outside the front doors and when a witness looked back, the group were gone.
BACKGROUND:
Yvonne Kay Waters was born in Perth in February 1957. She had one sibling and lived at home with her parents in Maylands. Yvonne was working for a concrete moulding business in Ashfield.
Yvonne and Raelene were cousins but also very good friends, often socialising with each other. Yvonne’s Mother was the sister of Raelene’s Father.
CASE DETAILS:
On Sunday 7 April 1974, Yvonne and Raelene were going to go with a friend to the Oxford Hotel in Leederville for a band that was playing. Before Raelene left, her Mother was going to a family engagement and as she left, said her daughter ‘Have a good time’. These were the last words from a Mother to her daughter.
Police believe Raelene’s Father drove her to Yvonne’s place in Maylands and they both caught a train from Maylands into Perth. It is likely that they then caught a bus to Leederville. The girls arrived and remained in the Sandgroper Bar of the Oxford Hotel for a short period of time before the two of them decided to go to the White Sands Tavern in Scarborough together.
Police believe they caught a bus to Scarborough as a witness saw them walking towards the Tavern from the direction of the bus stop.
Yvonne and Raelene arrived at the White Sands Tavern around 4.30pm and were seen socialising with five men at a table inside. The band playing at the time were ‘Fatty Lumpkin’. Two of the five men left the table leaving the girls in the company of three men. The men were described as older than the girls, aged in their early twenties and scruffy in appearance.
At closing time, around 6.45pm, the girls walked out of the Tavern with the three men they were socialising with. They all stood outside in the car park talking and when a witness looked back, the group were gone. This is the last known sighting of Yvonne and Raelene.
Around a week after the girls went missing, Yvonne’s boyfriend was driving a car with Raelene’s brother in the passenger seat. A tyre burst, with the car hitting a curb and rolling. As a result of the crash, Raelene’s brother received serious injuries and passed away around two weeks later, on Monday 29 April 1974.
The person or persons responsible for the disappearance of Yvonne and Raelene have not yet been identified. If you have any information in relation to the disappearance of Yvonne Kay Waters or Raelene May Eaton, or their movements around Sunday 7 April 1974, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a report online below. All reports to Crime Stoppers can be made anonymously if you wish and rewards are available.
