The Lost Girls. Ava Benny-Morrison. 2019.

A young woman keen to see the world. A loving family desperate for answers. And a vicious killer who spins a web of lies..

In August 2010, the bones of a young woman were found in the Belanglo State Forest, where, years earlier, Ivan Milat had tortured and slain seven young backpackers. Dubbed Angel, her remains lay unidentified for years. Who was she, how did she die, and at whose hand? 

Then, in July 2015, the bones of an unknown child were found in a suitcase by a highway in South Australia. Months later, a call to Crime Stoppers lead to an indentification. Two-year-old Khandalyce Pearce had left Alice Springs in 2008 with her mother and hadn’t been seen since. Through DNA, Angel was quickly identified as Khandalyce’s mother, Karelia Pearce-Stevenson. In the grimmest of scenarios, mother and daughter were reunited at last. 

The Lost Grils is the chilling true story of this heinous double murder and how police tracked down the perpetrator, who not only killed the girls but stole a young mother’s indentity to defraud authorities and her family. Gripping and authentic, The Lost Girls celebrates the short lives of a young woman and her daughter and the investigators determined to bring them home.