My sister vanished 29 years ago – she kept a dark secret and cops missed key clues…I’ve felt torn apart limb by limb
THE sister of a model who vanished almost 30 years ago fears her case could have been solved if she hadn’t been labelled as an escort.
Revelle Balmain, 22, was on the cusp of embarking on a dance tour in Japan when the blonde beauty disappeared in Sydney, Australia.
It sparked a three-decade-long mystery that has baffled detectives and plagued her family – with police still no closer to uncovering the truth.
Although her body has never been found and no charges laid, cops are certain she was murdered.
Revelle’s heartbroken sister Suellen Simpson has now opened up to The Sun about the devastating impact her disappearance continues to have on her family.
Her parents Jan and Ivor died without ever knowing what happened to their precious daughter.
The couple had already suffered a shattering tragedy years earlier when Revelle, then aged just four, found her baby brother Matthew dead in a pool.
Suellen said: “It destroyed my parents. How does anyone cope with losing a child to murder and never ever knowing why?
“There were no reasons behind it, it is the worst and nothing has changed since then.
“It was heartbreaking for them, we lost Matthew our brother to drowning and then Revelle to murder.
“I felt like someone had cut out a piece of my heart – both for the loss that our parents suffered and for myself.”
After making her debut on the cover of fashion magazine Oyster, it seemed Revelle had the world at her feet.
But after she vanished, her friends and family learnt of her secret double life in the seedy world of prostitution.
On the evening she disappeared on November 5, 1994, Revelle met with a client, keen surfer Gavin Samer.
She was supposed to meet her friends after, yet never showed up.
Samer, then 26, claimed he dropped Revelle at a nearby pub – but he quickly became shrouded in suspicion.
Then, after several of Revelle’s belongings were found in the streets close to Samer’s house, he became prime suspect.
One of the dancer’s cork-heeled platforms was found in a bin, her diary in a gutter, and her keys and make-up bag on a roadside.
Tragically, her passport and airline ticket to Japan sat packed in a bag at her home, never to be used.
Revelle had intended for Samer to be one of her final clients before she began on a new life – having gone into escorting to make quick cash in a bid to pursue her dreams.
Suellen added: “She was in a hurry to grow up and become an adult, even when she was very young she was quite mature.
“Everything in life was important to her, friends and family, but dance was her main focus.
“Modelling came along at the 11th hour, but sadly she never had much of a chance to fulfil that dream.
“We had previously talked about her escorting, but I didn’t know to what extent she was involved.
“That secret was kept from me, and I don’t believe she knew or realised the danger she was in before she disappeared.”
Samer spent the subsequent 15 years living as a recluse in Tasmania in a bid to escape the public’s attention.
But he was never charged in connection to Revelle’s disappearance – and police said there was no plausible motive.
With Samer out of the picture, police have scrabbled around trying to find the answers for Revelle’s distraught family.
An inquest in 1999 concluded the cover girl had died “at the hands of a person or persons unknown” – and the case was left with the unsolved homicide unit.
Suellen believes cops were so wrapped up focusing on Samer that other important lines of enquiries may have been overlooked.
She said: “I complained for years that the first investigation was futile.
“So many things were missed and just ignored, and I still have no understanding as to why.
“Perhaps if she hadn’t been labelled as an escort her case might have been solved by now. It was horrific.
“If there is anything to learn from Revelle’s investigation, it is what not to do when someone goes missing.”
Suellen said she and Revelle’s loved ones have grappled with different theories on what may have happened to her.
She said: “I have a handful of ideas regarding what happened, but because the first investigation was solely focused on one person everything else was overlooked and ignored.
“There are persons of interest but maybe it was something random in broad daylight. I guess anything is possible.
“I know other families suffer the loss of loved ones and our family is no more important than any other.
“But murder and not knowing tears you apart limb by limb and your heart crumbles into many hundreds of pieces, and what you have left is nothing.”
Suellen said the last time she spoke to Revelle, she told her sister of her plans to fly out to Japan.
She added: “She was full of energy and happy to have a break from Sydney.
“She needed to retreat from the life she had fallen into – plus she had found a new love which cemented the change she needed.
“She had dreams and was determined and strong-willed with what she put her mind to.
“As a child she was very happy, she was a girly girl, her room was full of pink from the bed to the walls and the fluffy toys plus drawers and cupboards filled with secret hiding spots for chocolate.
“She had a beautiful personality, friendly to just about all, yet overly trusting and unfortunately couldn’t distinguish between the good and the bad in people.
“In the end, that was to her demise.”
Suellen insists she will never stop trying to get justice for her beloved sister, who studied at the former Bush Davies School of Theatre Arts in London as a teenager.
In 2021, a new person of interest was linked to the case following an anonymous tip-off, and Revelle’s case is set to be reexamined by a coroner next February.
Suellen said: “It’s been constant [the search for answers] for the last 30 years.
“It’s infuriating knowing there is someone who knows what happened and where she is yet says nothing, probably for the fear of incriminating themselves or for the sheer inhumane act of keeping that secret from her family and friends for the rest of their lives.
“Over the years I have received messages from people who knew her telling me how lovely she really was.
“These messages bring me undone but in turn give me strength to continue.”
The police’s investigation has not moved forward since the tip-off two years ago.
A spokesman for New South Wales Police Force told The Sun: “We continue to appeal for people to come forward and provide information.
“A $1 million reward for information which leads to an arrest and conviction remains current.”