A 24 year old man has been arrested and charged for the murder of 26-year-old high school teacher Stephanie Scott in Leeton, NSW.
Scott went missing on Easter Sunday, April 5, just a week before she was due to marry fiancé Aaoren Leeson-Woolley in their home town in Western New South Wales.
Scott was last seen at Leeton High School where she taught English. She was a popular teacher at the school and an excited bride-to-be, according to her friends and family.
Scott visited her workplace on Easter Sunday to prepare lessons for a temporary teacher who would take over her classes while she was on her honeymoon. She was due to be married six days later.
But she never returned from her visit to the school, and shortly afterwards police began questioning her co-worker at the school.
The police reportedly began finding holes in the cleaner’s alibi on Wednesday and he became the primary suspect in the investigation into her disappearance. He was found with items connected to her death, and eventually police uncovered blood in his car and a photograph of what they believe to be Scott’s burnt body on his phone.
At 7.30pm on Wednesday night, NSW police arrested the man at his home in Leeton. This morning, he was formally charged with her murder and will face Griffith Court later today.
NSW Police are still appealing for any information about Scott’s disappearance as they have not yet located her body. They are also seeking information about her vehicle, a red Mazda 3 Sedan, and another vehicle, a white Toyota Hilux.
Leeton Shire Mayor Paul Maytom described the news as “devastating”, and that until this morning, the community expected to find Scott alive.
“I’m still trying to come to terms with it,” he said.
“The last few days everyone’s been talking about it in the town. For her to mysteriously disappear like that, everyone was hoping she was going to be found, and found alive. We didn’t know what could have happened.”
Last week, Women’s Agenda reported that 28 women have been killed as a result of violence against women in 2015. Scott’s presumed murder marks the 30th death of a woman as a result of violence in Australia since January 1, 2015.
If the police’s allegations are found to be true, Scott, like the majority of those 30 women, was murdered by someone known to her. She was murdered in broad daylight, while at work at the high school for which she has been a trusted employee for several years.
If it’s true Stephanie Scott’s death will become another in a tragically long list of violent murders of women in places that are so often presumed to be safe. As was pointed out in response to Victorian police officer Mick Hughes’ comments that women should not walk alone in parks, nowhere is wholly safe for women. Not parks, not their homes and, tragically, not even their workplaces.
The injustice of the loss of this young life to the epidemic of violence against women is unbearable. Our thoughts are with Stephanie’s fiance, friends, family and the community.
The police have urged anyone who has information or was in the vicinity of Leeton High School on Sunday to contact Griffith Police on (02) 6969 4310 or via Crime Stoppers.