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Lois Martha Roberts (c 1960 - c July 1998) was an Australian murder victim, whose death in 1998 remains unsolved. The case has been cited as an example of institutional racism of the police force.

Roberts was the daughter of Pastor Frank Roberts, an Aboriginal activist, and Muriel Roberts. She was the twin sister of the arts administrator and broadcaster Rhoda Roberts, and the sister of Philip and Mark. Brought up and educated in the Lismore region in northern New South Wales, Roberts trained as a hairdresser until, at age 20, she was seriously injured in a car accident sustaining permanent brain damage. She was rehabilitated sufficiently to care for herself and went to live on her own near Lismore. Subsequently she had two children who were raised by her mother and twin sister.

Roberts was last seen outside Nimbin Police Station on July 31, 1998. It would appear that she was abducted whilst hitch-hiking between Nimbin and Lismore and then tortured and abused before being killed. Her badly mutilated body was found about six months after her disappearance in January 1999. A bushwalker found the remains in Whian Whian State Forest deep in thick bush some way off a fire trail.

The perpetrator or perpetrators of the crime have never been identified. An inquest was held in June 2002. The senior stipendiary magistrate of the Lismore Court Circuit, Jeff Linden, sitting as a coroner returned an open finding after a two week hearing.

It has been alleged that the investigation of Robert's disappearance and her subsequent murder was tardy and poorly handled by the New South Wales Police Force at the time because of the institutional racism of the force and that this has contributed to the failure to bring anyone to justice for the crime.

[edit] External links

• Death Of Lois Martha Roberts - speech by The Hon. Janelle Saffin in the Parliament of New South Wales 12 May 1999
• A Sister's Love - documentary (2006) by Ivan Sen
• Interview with Rhoda Roberts - Life Matters ABC Radio National (audio download available)
• Roberts faces her sister’s tragedy - article from Byron Bay Echo September 2007