It’s been more than 25 years since 15-year-old Rebecca Richardson vanished from the quiet town of Gin Gin in Queensland.
Her disappearance is still one of Australia’s most haunting unsolved murder cases, and her loved ones are still waiting for answers.
What really happened to Rebecca? Who was responsible? And why has no one been brought to justice?
On November 28, 1998, Rebecca was last seen at the Gin Gin Santa Fair.
She was supposed to fly to England the next day to reunite with family, but sadly, she never made it.
Her friends first became worried when she missed a party after the fair.
Bec Marks, Rebecca’s close friend, told The Courier Mail:
"When she went missing, me and a group of friends went to the police to say she was missing—it wasn’t like her. She was meant to come to a party after the Santa Fair and never showed up. And she never claimed her ticket (to London)"
'At the time she went missing she was staying with friends and she was going there to get the key to her father's house to go and get a few belongings from her house ... she never made it.'
A missing person report was filed with the local police and a massive search followed.
But Rebecca never came home, and that search ended up lasting for years.
Before her disappearance, Rebecca’s father had recently passed away, leaving her and her sister in the care of friends.
One of them, Jodie Martin Stephen Van Der Vegt, would later be linked to her disappearance.
For more than two and a half years, Van Der Vegt lied to police, claiming that Rebecca was still alive.
But eventually, his wife came forward and told police the truth, as per Daily Mail Australia.
She said that he had actually witnessed someone murder Rebecca and that he even helped to bury her body at a local dump.
In 2002, Van Der Vegt pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, and he was sentenced to eight years.
However, he never revealed who killed Rebecca—or where her body was hidden.
Despite Van Der Vegt’s conviction, Rebecca’s murder mystery remains unsolved.
Her body has never been found, and no one has been charged with her murder.
Gin Gin is a small, tight-knit town, so when Rebecca went missing, it really shook everyone.
Many years later, in May 2025, another teen, Phoebe Bishop, vanished in almost the same way — right there in the same town.
But few months later, Phoebe Bishop was found murdered.
Bec Marks, still heartbroken after all these years, spoke about the pain Rebecca’s mother would have passed through.
"I can't imagine the heartbreak she goes through thinking about where her daughter is, the last moments of her life. It's horrible," she said.
"He (Van Der Vegt) told them that he put her here, put her there ... he was playing a game. I said to my friend before we stopped talking, be careful. Something about him irked me. I didn't like him."
"It’s not right that he (the killer) should get away with not letting her have a farewell."
Van Der Vegt later returned to prison in 2017 for drug offenses, but there is no online report about his current whereabouts.
Rebecca’s family is still waiting for answers.
If you have any information—no matter how small—about Rebecca’s disappearance, contact Crime Stoppers.
Every tip could bring her family one step closer to justice.
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