Murder of Anita Cobby

Anita Lorraine Cobby was a 26-year-old Australian nurse and beauty pageant winner. She was kidnapped while walking home from Blacktown railway station after dining out with two Sydney Hospital colleagues in Surry Hills, New South Wales, on 2 February 1986. Five men were later convicted of her abduction, rape and murder on 10 June 1987 and each sentenced to life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole, on 16 June 1987.

About Murder of Anita Cobby in brief

Summary Murder of Anita CobbyAnita Lorraine Cobby was a 26-year-old Australian nurse and beauty pageant winner. She was kidnapped while walking home from Blacktown railway station after dining out with two Sydney Hospital colleagues in Surry Hills, New South Wales, on 2 February 1986. Two days after being reported missing, Cobby’s body was discovered on a rural farm in Prospect. Five men were later convicted of her abduction, rape and murder on 10 June 1987 and each sentenced to life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole, on 16 June 1987. Cobby sustained multiple knife wounds and lacerations from barbed wire; her death was a result of a slit throat. The murder received widespread media coverage, condemnation, and attention. She met her future husband, John Cobby, while studying for her nursing degree at Sydney Hospital and they married on 27 March 1982. At the time of her murder in 1986, the couple had separated and C Bobby was living with her parents in Blacktown. According to John C Bobby, he and Anita were on good terms and, when she was murdered, had been planning to reconcile. She most likely decided to walk home after finding the phone to be out of order and no taxis available at the taxi rank. On the day of her death, she finished work at 3 p.m. and met friends for dinner in nearby Redfern. As a teenager she participated in beauty pageants, including winning the Miss Western Suburbs Pageant in November 1979, and had a promising career as a model.

However, she decided instead to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a nurse. Her attackers punched Cobby repeatedly, breaking her nose and both cheekbones, before forcing her to perform fellatio on all five men. The attackers then drove to a service station to purchase fuel using money stolen from C Bobby’s purse. When Cobby did not return home the next day, they reported her naked to their friend, who reported her missing. On February 4, 1986, they slit her throat, almost severing her head, and dumped her body in a secluded paddock. They then drove down Reen Road, Prospect and stopped by the now-empty Holden, where the man used a spotlight to search the adjacent paddock for a different model Holden. They later stated that they had hidden in the long grass to avoid the spotlight and waited for the man to leave. Once inside the car on Newton Road, C Bobby had been ordered to strip off her clothes but refused, begging her attackers to let her go and saying she was married and also menstruating. The gang of five men drove up beside her and stopped their stolen white HT Holden Kingswood. Two men leapt from the car and dragged her into the vehicle, as she kicked and screamed. The boy ran across the road to help, but the car drove off before he reached it. A few minutes later, their neighbour and his girlfriend arrived home and, after being told of the abduction, drove off to search for the car.