Murderer admits to raping, killing Gold Coast woman Linda Reed

A major breakthrough came when detectives discovered that a vaginal sample taken from Mrs Reed during the post-mortem remained in the possession of police.

It was sent to New Zealand researchers, who compared it with O’Meara’s DNA and the results were there was a high probability O’Meara’s DNA was in the mixed sample.

Progress in forensic science, such as DNA profiling and fingerprint analysis, led to the arrest of O’Meara in August 2018.

Detectives do not believe O’Meara knew Mrs Reed before their fatal meeting in 1983.

Mrs Reed’s husband, Robert, said in his victim impact statement that O’Meara took away his chances of having a family with Mrs Reed and he vowed to not have children with anybody else.

“No one could possibly know the pain and anguish I have been through over the past 38 years.”

O’Meara was already serving a term of life imprisonment after pleading guilty to murdering 22-year-old Vanessa Joy O’Brien in 1985 – two years after he killed Mrs Reed.

Ms O’Brien was killed in Kippa-Ring, north of Brisbane. O’Meara accosted her in a car park in daylight and forced her to drive 20 minutes away to a remote area.

He tied her up, raped and killed her, and left her body naked in similar way to that of Mrs Reed. However, on that occasion, he dumped the victim’s car some distance away from the murder scene.

During his more than 35 years of incarceration, O’Meara assaulted several prison guards, escaped for a day, made another escape attempt and also committed wilful damage.

The killer held a series of unskilled and labour jobs before his time in prison.

His mother is now in an aged-care home, his stepfather has cancer and he told his lawyer he hoped to get out of prison one day.

O’Meara’s sentencing was delayed on Monday owing to him being a minor when he committed the offences and whether he should be sentenced as such, or as an adult.