This article is over 1 year old 
 
 Police urge suspect, who would now be in his 60s, to come forward after finding information missed in original investigation 
 
 New South Wales police have made a breakthrough in the unsolved abduction of a three-year-old girl from a Wollongong beach almost 50 years ago. 
 
 Cheryl Grimmer disappeared from outside a shower block on 12 January 1970 but no trace of her was found despite an extensive search at the time. 
 
 Police believe they have now identified a suspect – a teenager who would be in his 60s now – after finding information that was missed in the original investigation. 
 
 Detective sergeant Damian Loone, who is leading the investigation, appealed for the suspect to come forward. 
 
 “It’s time to come clean and absolve yourself and tell us what happened on that day – and, more importantly, for the family,” he said. “If not for yourself, do it for them,’’ he said. 
 
 Her parents, John and Carole, died without knowing what happened to their daughter. 
 
 Cheryl was kidnapped while she was spending the day with her mother and three brothers. Witnesses at the time reported seeing a man leaving the beach with a child wrapped in a white blanket. 
 
 Police believe they have now identified a suspect – a teenager aged between 17 and 18 who would now be in his 60s – after finding information that was missed in the original investigation. 
 
 Detectives say the suspect was Caucasian, about 152cm with brown hair, blue eyes and fair complexion, and may still be alive. 
 
 Brothers Stephen, Ricki and Paul joined police at a press conference on Monday. 
 
 “Come forward please, let us know. We really want to know,” Stephen said. 
 
 Ricki says he he has “never forgiven” himself for his sister’s abduction. 
 
 “Just let us know where she is, give us something so we can mourn. It’s cost me my family and everything,” he said before walking off in tears. 
 
 Cheryl’s parents John and Carole Grimmer died never knowing what happened to their little girl. 
 
 “Mum and dad are never going to know. Please get it off your mind and let us know,” Stephen said on Monday. 
 
 A Coroner’s inquest at Wollongong Coroner’s Court in May 2011 concluded that Cheryl was deceased; however, who murdered the girl remains a mystery. 
 
 The NSW government has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. 
 
 Detective Sergeant James Dark said the reward had been announced with the hope of giving Cheryl’s family closure. 
 
 “It happened over 40 years ago and Cheryl’s family still suffer from the pain of not knowing. 
 
 “This was a child snatched from her family during broad daylight on a busy beach. Someone must have seen something at the time, and we are urging them to come forward,” Detective Sergeant Dark said. 
 
 “Cases like this are never closed until we find out what happened. Any information, no matter how small, can help put the puzzle together and bring us closer to a result,” Detective Sergeant Dark said. ||||| THERE is one man who will be terrified of the news that cold case detectives have made a stunning breakthrough in the Cheryl Grimmer abduction and suspected murder. 
 
 For almost 47 years, the question of who abducted Cheryl has hung over her family and police trying to solve one of Australia’s most disturbing child cold cases. 
 
 In January 1970, the toddler was ripped away from her family in a daylight abduction from Fairy Meadow Beach, Wollongong, NSW. 
 
 At the time it was reported a man was seen carrying a blonde girl wrapped in a towel as he ran towards the car park. 
 
 The three-year-old was never seen again, but now detectives have announced a major breakthrough — they believe whoever took Cheryl that day is still alive. 
 
 A breakthrough in the case came two weeks ago during a re-enactment of the incident, where several witnesses corroborated the presence of a teenage boy, aged between 17 and 18. 
 
 Police said the re-enactment had been staged as a matter of course five years after Cheryl was declared dead but missing by the coroner. 
 
 “(Our view) has been strengthened because of the witnesses returning here to the scene and they’ve mentioned this person a number of times,” Detective Inspector Brad Ainsworth told reporters. 
 
 He said detectives from Wollongong are dedicated to the case and have gone through hundreds and hundreds of statements, running sheets and interviews. 
 
 “You’ve got to remember this all took place in 1970 under the old format, the old style of investigation recording. So all of that’s been reviewed, it’s been transcribed and transposed put onto our current investigation computers and our systems, so that’s how it’s come about.” 
 
 Police said the suspect was caucasian, about 152cm with brown hair, blue eyes and fair complexion and, if alive, he would be in his early 60s. 
 
 The Daily Telegraphreported a review of the case exposed a major failing in the original investigation with a suspect being missed. The strike force officers’ renewed investigations are focused on that person. 
 
 There was no sign of Cheryl after she was taken from a toilet and shower block at Fairy Meadow Beach on January 12, 1970. That hot summer’s day she was at the beach with her mother and brothers. Her mother, Carole, was just a few metres away on the beach when her older brother Ricky left her alone in the toilet to get his mother to help her out. 
 
 The family had only just moved to Australia from England the year before. Her father John was in the army and based at the barracks in Penrith. 
 
 Cheryl, said to be a bubbly, happy child, just laughed when Ricky told her he was going to get their Mum to help her, he told the Telegraph. 
 
 She was by herself less than 30 seconds — but that is all it took for someone to strike. 
 
 Now the family are closer than ever to having answers. 
 
 The three brothers joined police at a press conference on Monday at Fairy Meadow Beach, where Cheryl was last seen. 
 
 “Come forward please, let us know. We really want to know,” Stephen said. 
 
 Cheryl’s brothers say they’ve never stopped thinking about “the tiny, bubbly little thing”. 
 
 “I ride past here, I walk past here and I always look, it’s always on your mind,” Stephen said. 
 
 Ricki said he has “never forgiven” himself for his sister’s abduction. “Everyone says it wasn’t my fault but come and stand where I’m standing, see what it feels like,” he told reporters. 
 
 “Just let us know where she is, give us something so we can mourn. It’s cost me and my family everything.” 
 
 Cheryl’s parents John and Carole Grimmer died never knowing what happened to their little girl. 
 
 “Mum and dad are never going to know. Please get it off your mind and let us know,” Stephen said. 
 
 After she vanished there were a few theories as to what happened, and who could be to blame. The most sensational was a ransom note sent to Cheryl’s parents Carole and John three days later. The chilling note demanded $10,000 for the safe return of Cheryl. 
 
 Undercover police waited at the drop-off point but no one came to make the pick up, leaving it unknown whether it really was the abductor, a hoax or a cruel scheme to make money off the back of a tragedy. 
 
 There was other speculation. A young girl was seen in a white car speeding away from the beach, while a mystery figure in orange swimsuit was supposedly seen grabbing her and running off. 
 
 Police hope the conscience of the person who took Cheryl will be enough to compel them to come forward. And if not, they are confident they are on the right path to finally ending one of NSW’s most enduring mysteries. 
 
 Know more? Email: andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au
– Australian police are chasing a mysterious suspect almost 47 years after a British girl disappeared from a beach during a family trip. Cheryl Grimmer's family had recently moved to Australia when police believe the 3-year-old was abducted from changing rooms at Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong on Jan. 12, 1970. Investigators had little to go on apart from a ransom note that led nowhere and witness reports that a man was seen running toward a parking lot with a blonde girl in a towel. But when witnesses—aged 9 to 12 at the time of the crime—gathered for a re-enactment of the abduction two weeks ago, they described something investigators had apparently missed: a male, possibly 17 or 18, lurking near the changing rooms prior to Cheryl's disappearance, reports the Times. "He was just seen loitering … in the morning and the afternoon," a detective says. Authorities believe the male—white with brown hair and blue eyes—may have snatched Cheryl after her brother, Ricky, took her to the ladies' changing room and then left to go get his mother, per News.com.au. Ricky Grimmer and his two brothers are now asking the suspect to come forward so they can fulfill a promise to their mother, who died three years ago, to find out what happened to Cheryl. "Just let us know where she is, give us something so we can mourn," Grimmer says, adding he's "never forgiven" himself for the abduction. "It's cost me and my family everything." A $100,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest, per AAP. (A woman was reunited with her kidnapped son after 21 years.)