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True crime podcast: Mum of missing girl shares heartbreaking message

The mother of Leisl Smith speaks to New Idea Investigates - by Katherine Davison
  • 09 Jul 2018

A devastated mother, who hasn’t seen her daughter in 16 years, has opened up about her pain in a new true crime podcast.

Speaking to the New Idea Investigates podcast, Sandi Harvey revealed how she lives with a ‘void’ in her life, ever since 23-year-old Leisl Smith vanished in August 2012.

Leisl, a keen animal-lover, left her Wallarah home on the NSW Central Coast at around lunchtime on 19 August 2012.

CCTV footage placed her at the train station at Tuggerah where she left her Honda Accord, but she walked away from the car and hasn’t been seen since.

Episode 7: What have you done with her?

‘It's like ... it's a void that you hope one day you can fill but yet, you don't want to, you know?’ her mum Sandi said in an emotional interview with New Idea Investigates.

‘You want to fill it with positive, not negative. And that's the hard thing. Sometimes I think I'm in a club with people I don't want to be in a club with.

‘People who have had family missing for 20 years and sometimes you think, "Wow, I'm not in such a bad position." And you can be sympathetic to them and then other days you think, "No, this is about me, this is about my daughter, this is about Leisl.

‘I want to feel bad today for me because I don't care how other people feel. I feel bad. And it's my day, it's my turn.’

Mum of missing Leisl Smith shares heartbreaking message in new podcast

Leisl went missing in 2012

And Sandi had a message for anyone who has information on her daughter’s whereabouts.

‘You don't have to say who you are, just tell me where she is,’ Sandi pleaded. 

For more on the baffling real life case of missing Leisl Smith listen to the What have you done with her? podcast from New Idea Investigates. Available on OMNY and iTunes.

Sandi Harvey speaks to New Idea Investigates

Leisl's mum Sandi (pictured) gives a heartbreaking interview to New Idea Investigates

Newspix

If you have information relating to this case please contact CrimeStoppers on 1800 333 000 

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Katherine Davison
Katherine is Executive Editor of News & Features for New Idea and a real-life specialist with 17 years of experience in Australia and the UK

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