Almost 25 years after she was last seen alive, the family of Cardiff teenager Gordana Kotevski says they are grateful the case is being re-investigated.
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Police set up a special unit - Strike Force Arapaima - earlier this year as part of a renewed investigation into the disappearance of 16-year-old Gordana as well as two other missing young women - Amanda Robinson and Robyn Hickie.
Gordana's aunt Julie Talevski spoke with the Newcastle Herald to mark National Missing Persons Week, an Australian Federal Police initiative to shine a spotlight on unsolved cases.
"We're just really grateful that it [the renewed investigation] is happening," said Ms Talevski, acting as a family spokesperson.
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"It is heartening to know that it is being taken seriously."
Gordana was last seen being bundled into a white Toyota Hilux at about 8.45pm on November 24, 1994. She was walking along Powell Street at Charlestown to a relative's house after some late night shopping.
Her kidnapping came 15 years after 18-year-old Robyn Hickie was abducted a short distance from her home on the evening of April 7, 1979. She was last seen on the Pacific Highway at Belmont North.
A fortnight after Robyn disappeared, 14-year-old Amanda Robinson vanished at Swansea - she was last seen walking home from a school dance on April 21.
Ms Talevski said her family understood that a handful of detectives were working as part of Strike Force Arapaima on a full-time basis, taking a fresh look at evidence in each of the three young women's cases.
"We're heading towards Gordana's 25th anniversary and 25 years is such a long time," she said.
"Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday and sometimes it feels like it was so long ago. You think of everything that's happened in the last 25 years - how much she's missed out on, how much we've missed out on."
Police declined to comment on the state of the inquiry this week except to say that the investigation was ongoing.
Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000
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