AFTER 18 years of heartbreak and frustration, the family of missing Central West woman Janine Vaughan have renewed hope after the NSW government announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the conviction of the person responsible for her murder.
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Ms Vaughan's sister Kylie Spelde and brother Adam Vaughan joined Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Scott Cook, at police headquarters in Sydney as the reward was announced on Friday morning.
Supt Cook confirmed the car, which is again a focus of the case, belonged to one of the people of interest who gave evidence at a coronial inquest in Bathurst in 2009 into Ms Vaughan's death.
VIDEO: The family speaking to the media ...
Police believe the driver of the same small red car stalked another woman just minutes before Ms Vaughan went missing.
At Ms Vaughan's inquest, the woman gave evidence she was so frightened by the man in the car, she hid behind a utility box on the corner of William and Howick streets before running away and seeking refuge in the Shell 24 hour service station.
Supt Cook said on Friday that officers investigating Ms Vaughan's murder believe "a local of Bathurst in 2001 was involved" and "there are people in Bathurst holding on to secrets" and "have been for some time".
Adam Vaughan cried as he spoke about what the family had endured for the best part of two decades.
We are very excited. It's the first time in a very long time we've felt this way.
- Kylie Spelde
While welcoming news of the $1 million reward, he said he hoped "information given to police 18 years ago didn't get missed and we've gone through this s**t for all this time when it could have been solved, because that's what we've come back to today: the same car and the same woman on the street".
Asked if she was confident the reward would help find answers in Ms Vaughan's case, Mrs Spelde said she was.
"We are very excited. It's the first time in a very long time we've felt this way," she said.
She said the family were very grateful to the government for increasing the reward.
Mrs Spelde said it was always difficult to come back to Bathurst, a city which she said holds such a terrible secret.
"I don't like to go there. It's hard, quite hard to return."
She pleaded with anyone who knows anything to "stop being frightened and scared and to come forward".
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