Emma Pawelski’s 2006 murder is an enduring Aussie mystery – but for her mum, she can never stop searching for answers.
It was a Monday in early December 2006 when Sharon McKell came home from a long day at work. Hot and exhausted, the Adelaide woman sat down at the table while her 15-year-old daughter, Hannah, had made dinner.
But Sharon couldn’t fully relax. Something was on her mind.
Sharon’s older daughter, Emma Pawelski, hadn’t been in touch for over a week.
It wasn’t overly odd. At 30, Emma was a lot older than her sister and she kept late hours. “Sometimes she’d go a while without checking in but I could usually get her on the phone,” Sharon told news.com.au podcast I Swear I Never.
“I’d mentioned to my parents that I was worried, and I’d decided that if I didn’t hear from her by the end of the day I was going to call the police and report her missing.”
As dinner sizzled on the stove, Sharon switched on the news. The lead item was a breaking story about the body of a woman that had been discovered in the Mount Crawford Forest, north of Adelaide.
“Suddenly, they started flashing pictures of the woman’s jewellery up on the screen,” Sharon says, “and my heart sank because I recognised it as Emma’s.”
After a frantic phone call to police, two homicide detectives arrived at Sharon’s door. They showed her some more photos of jewellery that had been found with the woman’s body, including a bracelet Sharon had given Emma for her birthday just a month earlier.
“My daughter Hannah said I was crying, that I screamed out when I saw the jewellery, but I don’t remember that. I just went into shock,” Sharon says.
Emma Jade Pawelski was murdered in 2006.
Her mum Sharon recognised Emma’s jewellery on TV.
Emma Pawelski had been found eight days after last being seen alive carrying a cat on Regency Road, Prospect on November 26.
Numb from grief, Sharon tried to absorb the horrific details of how her daughter had died. Emma had been badly beaten, her cause of death listed as severe head trauma. Her body had been set alight and left alone in the bush. It just seemed so unnatural – so utterly unthinkable – that Sharon only recalls snippets of what came after.
Police and SES personnel searching through part of Mount Crawford forest for evidence, near where the body Emma Pawelski was found.
“I had friends coming and going for a few days and I did presume that they would catch someone straight away,” she says. “I didn’t know all the details, but then I found out that she had obviously been killed somewhere else and then dumped up in the forest.”
Police believe that due to the location in which Emma’s body was found, it is likely that more than one person was involved, at least in the disposing of her remains. They believe there are people in the community with information on what happened who could provide the key to the case, and have stated they would be willing to offer substantial immunity to someone who could provide that information.
Emma aged 11 months with mum, Sharon McKell.
Emma Pawelski when she was younger.
One vital break in the case came via a mystery caller, who has phoned in tips to Crimestoppers twice over the past 16 years – once in 2014, and once in 2015. The caller, who supplied crucial information to investigators, is being asked to again contact police, but so far, their pleas have gone unanswered.
For Sharon, the idea of someone involved in her daughter’s death getting immunity in exchange for information would be a worthy trade off.
“I mean, I don’t know if I could forgive someone because they’ve put us through so much torment and grief. But part of me thinks well, maybe I will forgive them. If they come forward. And tell us the truth,” she says.
And to that person – or people – Sharon has this message: “Just please look into your heart and think about Emma’s family and what happened to Emma.
“And you will just be doing something so beneficial and great for the family to come forward with the truth.
“I’m not going to hate that person. I don’t believe in hating people. I would just be very relieved and very thankful and grateful that they’ve come forward.”
If you have any information at all about the disappearance or death of Emma Pawelski, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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Keyword: Someone knows who murdered Emma Pawelski